Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Thursday said the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that Nika Gvaramia, the founder of the opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi channel, was a criminal and the political motivation for his release from prison was to mess up the situation in the country.

Papuashvili’s comments followed after the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday declined to consider the claim of Nika Gvaramia, the founder of Mtavari Arkhi channel, regarding his earlier conviction for improper commercial deals in 2015 and 2019 during his time at the helm of the Rustavi 2 TV.

In his remarks, Papuashvili noted that Gvaramia’s release had nothing to do with ending the polarisation of the domestic political environment.

“We saw [Georgian President] Salome Zourabichvili pardoning Nika Gvaramia [last year]. We saw that she could not even dare to explain what the reason for the pardon was. We saw responses from some European politicians who welcomed [President’s] decision [on pardoning Gvaramia] as part of depolarisation, and we see where we are now. Now the [Georgian] public understood that all this was a farce, it was not a step towards depolarisation”, Papuashvili said.

“The European Court of Human Rights did not even consider [Gvaramia’s claim], it looked at the documentation, realised that it was dealing with a criminal and there were no question marks over this case. So, [...] it has been confirmed that Gvaramia is a criminal. It has been proven that there was a political motivation to release him from prison”, he continued.

Papuashvili further added that Gvaramia and Nika Melia, the former Chair of the opposition United National Movement party, who had been released from prison as a result of foreign interference in Georgian justice, were attacking the Georgian court, justice and the peaceful development of the country.

imedi