Justice

Giorgi Latsabidze told Omega Representative to give up Iberia TV - Witness

The hearing on the case of the seizure of Iberia TV’s broadcasting license was resumed by examination of prosecution’s evidence at the Tbilisi City Court.

The witness of the prosecution, acting prosecutor Bakur Chikovani was interrogated at the proceeding today. He worked at the investigation department of the prosecutor general’s office in 2004 and was the prosecutor of Omega Group’s case, specifically, in the part of the financial arrears of the companies united in Omega Group.

As the witness recollects, he held numerous meetings with the representative of Omega Group, Levan Agdgomelashvili and the company’s attorneys – Shalva Shavgulidze and Soso Baratashvili, in the period when he worked on the case, who, according to the witness, used to give him telephone calls and visit him at the prosecutor’s office quote often.

Bakur Chikovani said that he had not heard about Iberia TV until September 2004, when he learnt that the television was united in Omega Group.
According to Chikovani, in that period, former deputy prosecutor general Giorgi Latsabidze assigned him to organize the visit of Omega representative Levan Agdgomelashvili.

He said the first meeting between Levan Agdgomelashvili and Giorgi Latsabidze took place in the office of the deputy prosecutor general, where he was also present.

“The conversation started and only then I learnt that Agdgomelashvili was summoned regarding the issue of Iberia TV. Latsabidze said they should give up Iberia TV, otherwise, as far as I remember, the restructuring of the arrear in the amount of 17 million would not be enforced and the factory would not be allowed to resume operation. I realized that Agdgomelashvili was not the person in charge of taking a decision on this case and he had to deliver the message to the managers. After this meeting, he visited Latsabidze at the office again together with Soso Baratashvili and they said they accepted the deal. Soso Baratashvili had relevant documents with him”, - Chikovani said.

He also said that Latsabidze’s offer sounded like ultimatum.

As Chikovani said under the instruction of Giorgi Latsabidze, he personally organized the meeting of Levan Agdgomelashvili and Soso Baratashvili with Dimitri Kitoshvili, who chaired the national communications regulatory commission then. The witness said he was not present at the meeting anymore.
“They entered the office of Kitoshvili alone. I learnt later that Iberia’s license was waived,” – said the witness and added that he was not aware of the issue of arrears of Omega Group’s companies and the accuracy of the revision act as he did not have proper knowledge.

“I followed the signed act. I did not have knowledge in taxes and only the persons having conducted the revision were responsible for the accuracy of the document,” – the witness said

Bakur Chikovani also emphasized the fact that former prosecutor general Zurab Adeishvili was personally involved in the process of restructuring.
The next session on Iberia TV case was appointed for the 14th of November, at 15:00 p.m.

It should be noted that the prosecutor’s office investigated the case of Iberia TV closure and seizure of its broadcasting license in February 2016. According to the prosecution, former prosecutor general Zurab Adeishvili and his first deputy Giorgi Latsabidze were prosecuted for the crime.