Justice

“I learnt the request on giving up Iberia license from Giorgi Latsabidze” – the witness

Tbilisi City Court resumed the hearing on the case of Iberia TV closure and seizure of the broadcasting license with the examination of the evidence presented by the prosecutors of the case today.

The court interrogated the witness of the prosecution, Levan Agdgomelashvili, who currently works as the general manager of one of the Omega Group’s subsidiaries – OGT.

As the prosecutor of the case Emzar Gagnidze told journalists, Levan Agdgomelashvili was one of the key witnesses of the machinations as a result of which Iberia TV broadcasting license was forcefully given up by the Omega management.

As the witness stressed at the hearing today, in 2004, when the riot police raided the Omega companies, due to which their operations were suspended, he worked as the procurement manager of the OGT and simultaneously, he was in charge of communicating with international partners.

Levan Agdgomelashvili recollected February 19th, 2004, the day when the riot police raided the offices of the Omega companies and paralyzed the operation of the enterprise. He also described how the employs were driven out of their workplaces, some of them were beaten up and the company’s inventory was broken down.

As the witness asserted, the raid was carried out under the command of the prosecutor general’s office. When Giorgi Chiviashvili, the lawyer of the defendant on this case, Zurab Adeishvili asked the witness to recollect who the prosecutor general was at that time, Levan Agdgomelashvili answered that it was Irakli Okruashvili.

As for the negotiations related to the giving up of the company’s shares, as the witness recollected, on September 19, 2004, prosecutor Bakur Chikovani gave a call to him and summoned him to the prosecutor’s office. Agdgomelashvili says he was taken into the office of Giorgi Latsabidze and it was the very person, from whom he learn about the request on giving up Iberia’s shares for the first time.

“Well, you are paralyzed and to resume operating, you must give up Iberia license. A physical entity will join the group of founders and defect from the same group taking away the license as his shares on the same day” - Witness quoted Latsabidze - “This was an explicit request. One of the conditions for resuming the functioning of the enterprises was to give up shares. We had to give up the license, I heard this from you. I did not get similar command from anybody else”, - the witness addressed the defendant.

He also said that Latsabidze did not specify the person, to whom the license would be registered. The witness asserts that prosecutor Bakur Chikovani was present at that negotiation.

According to Agdgomelashvili, he delivered the request message from Adeishvili’s deputy to the managers of Iberia – Aleksandre Latsabidze and Nikoloz Asanidze, who agreed to do so.

As for the procedures of registration, as the witness recollected, it was carried out by notarial confirmation on December 7, 2004; Omega was represented by Nikoloz Asanidze, Aleksandre Latsabidze and Ketevan Pankvelashvili; the meeting was attended by that time chairman of the National Communications Regulatory Commission of Georgia, Dimitri Kitoshvili and it was his acquaintance on whom the seized license was registered. On the same day, the person defected from the group of the shareholders and took away the license as his share. On the basis of this license TV Company Aisi was founded. Agdgomelashvili said, the process of the registration was conducted by Kitoshvili.

As for the preconditions for resumption of the operation of Omega Group’s companies following the seizure of the Iberia license, according to the witness, negotiations were conducted with the prosecutor general’s office on the sum, which should be indicated in the revision act, the amount of the fine that Omega would be charged with and the terms and conditions of the contract on restructuring.

“It was a formal revision. I was receiving the information from Bakur Chikovani on the amount that had to be written in the revision act, the terms and conditions of the restructuring and the amount of the fine and I was in charge of delivering this information to my managers afterwards”, - Levan Agdgomelashvili said.
The next hearing on the case was appointed for November 15th, at 11 a.m. The substantial discussion will be continued with the examination of the evidence of the defense.

As the prosecutor of the case, Emzar Gagnidze stated, the prosecution would interrogate a “very important witness” at the next hearing of the case – the eyewitness of the occurrence.

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