Tbilisi District Court upheld the lower level City Court’s ruling and remanded Shalva Ramishvili, co-founder of the 202 television and his partner Davit Kokhreidze, to three-month pre-trial custody on September 2. The District Court’s ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
Like the lower level court, the District Court also stated that if freed on bail there could be no guarantee that Ramishvili would not act with intent to “influence” the testimonies of witnesses, which eventually might have “a negative effect” on the investigation.
At the hearing in a courtroom packed with journalists and supporters of Ramishvili, the latter stated once again that he was the victim of a provocation. Ramishvili, who was arrested together with Kokhreidze, is accused of extorting USD 100,000 from MP Koba Bekauri.
Ramishvili said at the hearing that the investigation has not “even one well-founded [bit of] evidence” against him, except the testimony of MP Bekauri, who claims that Ramishvili was blackmailing him.
Currently, investigators have two testimonies against Ramishvili – one by MP Bekauri, who says that Ramishvili was blackmailing him for USD 100,000 and threatening to air a compromising story about him; and another – by Irma Stepnadze –owner of the apartment were MP Bekauri handed over USD 30,000 to Ramishvili – part of the sum which, according to Bekauri, Ramishvili was demanding in exchange for not airing the compromising story.
Ramishvili also said that his partner, Davit Kokhreidze, who is the director of 202 Television, is “absolutely innocent.”
“He [Kokhreidze] knew nothing – he was just accompanying me [to the meeting with MP Bekauri],” Ramishvili said.
Initially, Bekauri testified that only Ramishvili was blackmailing him, but later changed his testimony and said that Kokhreidze was also blackmailing him together with Ramishvili.
Ramishvili also demanded that the investigators to check his cell phone bill in order to review incoming calls. Ramishvili claims that Bekauri was calling him regularly over the past three months requesting not to air a journalistic investigation piece invloving him. Prosecutors said at the hearing on September 2 that they have not yet traced Ramishvili’s phone records.