Nika Gvaramia Said Interrogated Witnesses Confirmed His Innocence

Salome Chkheidze

According to the defense side statement, testimonies of the witnesses, interrogated at the trial on the case of former Minister of Justice and Education Nika Gvaramia and former Minister of Energy Aleksandre Khetaguri, did not prove their guiltiness. The prosecutor claims those witnesses proved their guiltiness.

On April 11, prosecutor questioned five witnesses with regard to the case on Nika Gvaramia, Aleksandre Khetaguri, Kakhaber Damenia, Devi Kandelaki, Giorgi Nemsitsveradze, Izabela Kurtidze and Ashot Mamukiani at the trial.

Head of legal department of the JSC Telasi (Tbilisi electricity distribution company) Davit Doijashvili was the first to be interrogated at the hearing; he was questioned about the agreement signed between Telasi and Ltd L & M Service. The prosecutor claims this agreement was illegally signed for money laundering.

Two more witnesses were questioned at the trial who said they had founded companies based on their own wish to get financial profit; however, they did not do anything in those companies. It is noteworthy that one and the same person assisted all witnesses to register the aforementioned companies. The prosecutor claims that later those companies and L & M Service signed financial agreements though owners did not confirm their participation in it.

“The witnesses confirmed that we had no connection and personal interest in this deal. It is absolutely impossible to detect signs of crime in them. It was ordinary contract and the head of the legal department of Telasi and other persons too, who technically participated in this process, confirmed it once again,” Nika Gvaramia said after the trial.

The prosecutor claims the witnesses confirmed some details related with the crime. The prosecutor said the witnesses confirmed that there are three agreements, which were signed by one and the same person; besides that, those three companies were founded on one day and one person participated in its registration; everything was done based on Nika Gvaramia’s instructions.

Nika Gvaramia and other accused in the case were blamed in false entrepreneurship, taking particularly large amount of bribe, falsification of tax documents, money laundering and abuse of professional authority.