Nika Melia's trial scheduled for 16:00

Nika Melia's trial is scheduled for 16:00 today. Bidzina Ivanishvili's full-fledged clan yesterday backed the lifting of immunity for the opposition leader.

Today, the fate of one of the main opposition leaders of the country, Nika Melia, is to be decided by Judge Nino Chakhnashvili.

For information, after the lifting of immunity for Nika Melia, the prosecutor's office applied to the court yesterday with a request to arrest him. The trial did not take place on 16 February.

The name of Judge Nino Chakhnashvili, who is to decide whether to release Nika Melia from prison today, is linked to a number of high-profile political justice cases involving political prisoners and government opponents. In 2019, Nino Chakhnashvili was a judge who refused to grant victim status to those injured on Gavrilov's bloody night on June 20.

One month after the arrest of political prisoner Giorgi Rurua, the same judge considered reviewing the restraining order for  Giorgi Rurua and left him in prison. In the so-called money laundering case, Nino Chakhnashvili partially shared the request of the prosecutor's office and ordered Badri Japaridze and Mamuka Khazaradze to pay 700 thousand GEL bail. Nino Chakhnashvili has been appointed a life judge in the city court.

For reference, Giorgi Rurua was arrested on November 18, 2019. The investigation accused him of illegal purchase, storage, and carrying of a firearm, but none of the evidence in the case confirmed the prosecution's version.

Giorgi Rurua was detained for political motives according to the international partners, who called on the Georgian authorities to release him and end his political persecution. Rurua's release was also part of the famous March 8 agreement, but the government did not fulfill that promise.

On July 30, Judge Vladimer Bugianishvili sentenced Giorgi Rurua to 4 years in prison.