Ruling party mayoral candidates sue opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi channel

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) mayoral candidates in Kareli and Chiatura regions, Zaza Guliashvili and Givi Modebadze, have filed a lawsuit in Tbilisi City Court against the opposition-minded Mtavari-Arkhi TV channel and its head Nika Gvaramia for spreading fake information about them. 

They are demanding 55,555 GEL in ‘symbolic compensation’ each ‘for the moral damage,’ 

Earlier this month, the ruling party mayoral candidate in Kutaisi, Ioseb Khakhaleishvili, also sued the channel with the same reason and demanded compensation.

Gvaramia served as a minister of justice and deputy prosecutor general under the United National Movement government.

He was the director of Rustavi 2 TV channel for two years from 2012, when the Georgian Dream coalition defeated the UNM in parliamentary elections, while from 2014 he became director general of the channel.

He was forced to leave the position after the verdict of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which ruled in favour of the former owner of Rustavi 2 in late July 2019. 

Gvaramia has been charged with abuse of authority while in office and misspending of funds while in Rustavi 2 TV.