Rustavi 2 was returned not to the rightful owners, but to Mr. Khalvashi

The founders of Rustavi 2 TV, Djardji Akimidze and Davit Dvali, together with lawyer Kakha Kozhoridze, are responding in writing to Tea Tsulukiani's comment, in which she said that Rustavi 2 was returned back due to the titanic work of the Ministry of Justice and the Georgian Dream . They were not asleep when Strasbourg made this decision - we have returned Rustavi 2 back to you - said the former Minister of Justice live.

The response letter states that the TV station was handed over not to the founders, but to Kibar Khalvashi, with whom the original founders have a legal dispute, on which no hearing in the city court has been held so far. The authors of the letter hope that Rustavi 2 will finally return to the real founders.

Response letter in full:

"1." Rustavi 2 "was returned not to its founders and legal owners, but to Mr. Kibar Khalvashi, who, according to his own statement, was a direct participant in the criminal act against the TV company in 2004 and the executor of the order of the then government. Therefore, the return of Rustavi 2 to Khalvashi is not a restoration of justice but it is a perverted perception of justice.

2. As you know, in 2019 we filed a lawsuit against Kibar Khalvashi and demanded the return of 60% of Rustavi 2 shares. We would like to inform the interested public that so far no hearing on our lawsuit has been conducted so far in the Tbilisi City Court and it is unknown when the first hearing will take place. The radically different approach of the same court in this case further underscores the unfairness and selective justice in the country. The authorities' interest in the Khalvashi lawsuit was to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible, and so it was: After about a year and a half, all three instances of court, including the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, issued a decision. This was a record-breakingly fast period in the history of the Georgian court, unprecedented in its history. In the case of our lawsuit, the government was interested in delaying the process, and as a result, no hearings have been held so far.

3. In addition, in 2012, we filed an application with the Georgia Prosecutor's Office to investigate the 2004 criminal facts. The Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation and recognized the founders of Rustavi 2 as victims, but then they "fell asleep" and put the case on the dark and dusty shelf of the Prosecutor's Office. Why did the Prosecutor's Office do that? The answer is simple: identifying the perpetrators would make it easier to return Rustavi 2 to its legal owners, which is not in the interest of Georgian Dream.

We are patiently waiting for the court to wake up and start the hearing of our case. We demand only one thing: a fair trial! "We affirm that justice will be restored only after the confiscated" Rustavi-2 "is returned to its founders," the letter reads.