Court refuses bail for Rurua despite opposition’s accusations, ‘threats to election agreement’

Tbilisi City Court has once again refused bail for the co-founder of the opposition-minded TV channel Mtavari Arkhi Giorgi Rurua, who has been charged with the illegal possession of firearms. 

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The opposition says that Rurua’s imprisonment is a threat to the ruling party and the opposition March 8 election agreement mediated by the diplomatic corps. 

The opposition claims that the ruling party ‘accepted the release’ of Rurua, together with opposition leaders Gigi Ugulava and Irakli Okruashvili in the March 8 agreement. However, the ruling party says it is a lie. 

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Rurua’s lawyer stated that today the court completed the questioning of all 34 witnesses and there was no threat of Rurua influencing them.

However, a judge said that the threat still existed and refused bail. 

The opposition says that if Rurua remains in prison, they will not vote for the constitutional changes for the 2020 parliamentary elections per the March 8 agreement. 

Tamar Toradze is accusimg Rurua of killing seven of her family members.

They say that Rurua ‘is being deliberately discredited,’ referring to the accusations of Tamar Toradze a woman of Georgian origin with US citizenship, who says that Rurua killed seven of her family members back in the 1990s. 

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The ruling party says that the government never interferes in the court’s issues.