A court in the Georgian capital Tbilisi has sentenced a founder and a director of the independent television channel "202" to jail terms for blackmail. The two men were found guilty of demanding money from a member of parliament in exchange for not showing film footage potentially hazardous for his reputation.
Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency reported that Shalva Ramishvili and David Kokhreidze had been sentenced to four and three years in prison respectively. The prosecution had demanded five years for each man.
The court found the two guilty of extorting money from Koba Bekauri, a member of the Georgian parliament. Ramishvili and Kokhreidze were detained in August 2005 after receiving $30,000 from Bekauri. The day before the arrest, Bekauri contacted police with allegations that Ramishvili was demanding $100,000 from him in return for not showing film footage which could damage the MP’s reputation.
The Georgian opposition decried the sentence given to the journalist. Zviyad Dzidziguri, an MP representing the opposition faction "The People’s Front" told reporters after the verdict was pronounced in court "the decision was taken not by the court but by the country’s government headed by [the Georgian President] Mikhail Saakashvili."
