The General Director of the Georgian opposition channel Rustavi2, Nika Gvaramia, was attacked on January 7 while dining together with friends in a restaurant in Tbilisi.
“I buried my father today and I was feeling depressed. My friends invited me to restaurant Dining Room in order to make me feel better. The lights went off and we were preparing to leave when we were physically attacked in the dark,” he wrote in his Facebook post.
While the police started an investigation, the attacker came forward voluntarily. The son of former politician Levan Gachechiladze, who is now director of Maestro, a competing TV station to Rustavi 2 admitted his guilt late night January 7.
“This was my reaction to the physical and moral abuse that my family and I have suffered in the last years from Gvaramia and not only from him,” he wrote on Facebook.
He and his father both pointed out the attack as revenge against National United Movement’s actions.
An investigation is in progress. Rati Gachechiladze has been detained; his action is punishable by restriction of freedom for up to two years or imprisonment from one to three years.
According to doctors, Nika Gvaramia has brain trauma, a brain concussion and soft tissue injuries.
Background:
Levan Gachechiladze (attacker’s father) was United Opposition’s candidate in 2008 early presidential elections and was defeated by the UNM leader, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Nika Gvaramia was a member of the UNM party, a member of parliament, and was later appointed minister for justice in 2007-08, and minister of education for 2008-09.
