Ivanishvili still needs Nika to be in prison - Giorgi Gabunia

"I am not surprised, we hoped that something might happen, but not in the sense of what the judges would decide. No, maybe something was going on behind the scenes and Bidzina Ivanishvili may have needed Nika Free," Giorgi Gabunia said of this after the appeals court's verdict was announced.

"We expected him to at least leave the sentence as it was. Practically it stayed the same, but technically it was also a signal, in my opinion, and we were hinted that where the city court imposed a fine on Nika, he was also sentenced to jail and it's exactly the same sentence, and so those sentences absorbed each other.

I'm not surprised, we were hoping that something might happen, but not in the sense that the judges would decide. No, maybe something was going on behind the scenes and Bidzina Ivanishvili might have needed Nika Free, which we did not know, but it turned out that this was not the case. Ivanishvili still needs Nika to sit in jail.

If the situation changes in the country or in the international arena so that Nika's freedom is more beneficial to Georgian Dream, Nika will be released and what happens in the case, what we want, what others want, of course, it doesn't matter," says Giorgi Gabunia.