Prisoners pardoned

TBILISI, DFWatch – The President pardoned 114 convicts today, according to the Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance. 75 prisoners, four of whom are women, will leave jail, while 13 prisoners had their sentence halved and 26 had their suspended sentence lifted. The commission to review early release reviewed cases it had received from local … Read more

Patriot’s guide

First of all, I welcome member of parliament Mr. Gia Tortladze’s pathos to research Russian capital’s influence on the Georgian reality and accordingly on the policy. As you know, this topic is not unknown to me and I’ve been trying for years (unfortunately, in vain) to focus the government’s attention in this direction. Accordingly, I … Read more

Where did the newsstands go?

TBILISI, DFWatch – Representatives of the media, press distributors and other supporters gathered Friday in front of the Holiday Inn at the center of Tbilisi to once again protest against the situation created around the newspapers and press distributing kiosks. ‘We light, Saakashvili darkens’ – this was the message written on fliers that rally participants … Read more

“Retroactive law” was a misunderstanding

TBILISI, DFWatch – The government says that the political partners of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili won’t have to return the money received from his companies for the last two months. Pavle Kublashvili (pictured), chairman of the Parliament Judiciary Issues Committee claimed this December 29 at the special briefing in parliament. The issue came to the public’s … Read more

Why, Mr President?

TBILISI, DFWatch – Democracy activists and rights groups descended on president Saakashvili’s palace in Tbilisi’s Avlabari district Thursday to protest against his signing of a bill into law. Frustration and disbelief has been the dominating reaction among political circles after this became known, and in a spontaneous show of emotion, activists took to the streets … Read more

Georgia’s richest could become stateless

TBILISI, DFWatch – The Georgian businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, listed by Forbes as the world’s 185th richest, could become stateless, after today renouncing his French citizenship too. A little over two months ago the financier turned politician held triple French-Russian-Georgian citizenship, but after getting entangled in politics he has had to hand in two of them … Read more

New details about who owns Georgian TV stations

TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgian TV stations have released information about who owns them. It has long been a general impression, but hard to prove, that Georgian TV stations are controlled by the government. The information substantiates these suspicions and shows to what extent persons around the country’s president have a stake in the broadcasting media. … Read more

Prisoner torture ignored, claims MP

TBILISI, DFWatch – Giorgi Tsagareishvili, chairman of the faction Unity for Justice and the member of the Free Democrats accuses the government of prisoner torture and demands that the Chief Prosecutor’s office investigates the torturing of a 22 year old prisoner. He told reporters at a press conference that the director and a security officer … Read more