The Tbilisi District Court is expected to discuss, during the September 2 appeal of co-founder of 202 television Shalva Ramishvili’s defense lawyers, the suspension of the Tbilisi City Court’s ruling to sentence Ramishvili and his partner, Davit Kokhreidze, to three-month pre-trial detention.
Meanwhile, new details emerged on September 1 regarding this case, in which Shalva Ramishvili is accused of extorting USD 100,000 from Koba Bekauri, a parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party.
The Interior Ministry issued a statement unveiling the name of a person who acted as mediator between MP Bekauri and Ramishvili – Irma Stepnadze, spokesperson of the Georgian Railway Company. The Interior Ministry said that Ramishvili and MP Bekauri met in Stepnadze’s apartment in Tbilisi where Ramishvili received USD 30,000 from Bekauri – part of the USD 100,000, which Ramishvili was allegedly extorting from Bekauri in exchange for not airing a compromising story about the parliamentarian. Irma Stepnadze is a long-time common friend of both Ramishvili and Bekauri.
At a pre-trial hearing on August 29 Ramishvili said that he pinned hopes on the testimony of the apartment’s owner (Ramishvili then refrained from naming the owner), but eventually Stepnadze testified against Ramishvili and even said that the latter offered her USD 5,000, which she refused to take.
As a result, Stepnadze has become the second person, after MP Bekauri, to give evidence against the 202 TV co-founder, thus improving the investigators’ case against Ramishvili.
But Ramishvili’s defense lawyer Davit Korkotashvili described Stepnadze’s testimony as “false” and “absurd” on September 1 and said that the investigation has no well-founded evidence to prove that Ramishvili was really blackmailing MP Koba Bekauri “and now the investigators will use any kind of trick to obtain false testimonies.”
In a response to the Interior Ministry’s statement and the testimony of Stepnadze, Shalva Ramishvili disseminated, through his defense lawyers, a letter on September 1 in which the 202 TV co-founder gave his version of the developments and also unveiled two new names who might also be questioned by the investigators.
The letter reads that “Koba Bekauri numerously asked and threatened me” not to broadcast the investigation reporting prepared by the organization “Reporter” about the MP’s wrongdoings in relation to the customs terminal “Opiza.”
“His [Bekauri’s] phone calls were so annoying that I was telling many people about this,” Ramishvili writes in a letter and names Tina Khidasheli and Levan Ramishvili among those whom he was telling about Bekauri’s phone calls. Tina Khidasheli is a legal expert and one of the leaders of the opposition Republican Party. Levan Ramishvili heads the influential non-governmental organization Liberty Institute.
Both Khidasheli and Levan Ramishvili have already confirmed that the 202 TV co-founder was really telling them about MP Koba Bekauri’s phone calls and demands not to air a ‘compromising story’ about him.
“On August 23-24, when I was in Kobuleti [Adjara Autonomous Republic], Irma Stepnadze called me and told that Bekauri had a commercial proposal to me. I refused to discuss this proposal. Later I met Stepnadze in Tbilisi, who said that Bekauri was ready to pay a great sum – USD 100 thousand if I blocked the film [about MP Bekauri’s wrongdoings]. Then I decided that if I could shoot this fact [Bekauri paying money], this would make the evidence [against Bekauri] given in the film more firm,” Ramishvili writes in the letter.
Ramishvili also said that he demanded Bekauri to transfer the sum to his private bank account.
“The leadership of [Tbilisi-based] BasisBank – Zura Tsikhistavi [the Director-General of BasisBank], knows about it. I asked him to allot a room for us with hidden cameras, where we should have counted the money,” the Ramishvili’s letter reads.
According to Rustavi 2 television Zura Tsikhistavi confirmed this information.
But according to Shalva Ramishvili the situation changed on August 27 after Irma Stepnadze called him again and said that the plans have changed and money would be transferred in her apartment.
Ramishvili says that he had no other chance but to take part of the money in order not to trigger MP Bekauri’s suspicions. Ramishvili also says that he could not take a hidden camera to film the process of the money handover because Vakhtang Komakhidze, director of “Reporter,” a media studio that produces investigative programs, was not in Georgia at that time. Ramishvili says that he decided to film the money handover next time.
The footage shot by a police hidden camera shows Bekauri giving Ramishvili a bundle of money – USD 30,000 and telling him that he will give the rest – USD 70,000 – later, at their next meeting in a couple of days.