Reacting to the Supreme Court’s handing a five-year prison term, Formula TV founder David Kezerashvili has issued a statement accusing PM Irakli Gharibashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili of standing behind it.
Kezerashvili has said the key aim of the sentence is to blackmail and pressure himself as well as the TV station he has supported.
"The decision made by Ivanishvili's personal lawyer and former Prosecutor General in the Supreme Court is yet another step to adjust the judiciary to his own narrow political objectives. I have particular affection towards my country and a sense of responsibility.
It has been exactly this responsibility that motivates me most to actively support any manifestation of the fight for freedom in Georgia over the years - be it civic activism, or support for Western values-based media, free from government control. I will definitely appeal this disgraceful decision by the Supreme Court in the European Court of Human Rights,” Kezerashvili said.
“I am informed that the direct initiator and organizer of this disgrace is Irakli Garibashvili, Ivanishvili’s servant. He assumes that I and the television I support can be intimidated or blackmailed,” he added.
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