Zurab Kurtsikidze, Irakli Gedenidze, Giorgi Abdaladze and Natia Gedenidze Released from Court Room

Photo reporters Zurab Kurtsikidze, Irakli Gedenidze, Giorgi Abdaladze and Natia Gedenidze released from Tbilisi City Court room of session.

Judge Zviad Esebua decided to immediately release them from the court room.

The trial of the photo reporters started at 16:00 pm on July 22nd in Tbilisi City Court. It was attended by Giorgi Abdaladze, Zurab Kurtsikidze, Irakli and Natia Gedenidzes. The session was led by the judge Zviad Esebua.

The Office of Prosecutor addressed Tbilisi City Court with a request to pass the verdict in the case of the detained photo reporters without substantive hearing of the case. The Office of Prosecutor requested following conditional arrest sentences: 3 years for Zurab Kurtsikidze, 4-4 years for Giorgi Abdaladze and Irakli Gedenidze and 1.6 year for Natia Gedenidze.

Judge Esebua satisfied the request of Office of Prosecutor.

The plea-bargain agreement was made with the photo reporters earlier. As the lawyer Mikheil Ghonghadze stated to Zurab Kurtsikidze, the photo reporters had not paid any GEL in the procedural agreement. The defendants were not charged with money.

“For a long time there has been a presumption that they are going to end this case softly,” – stated political scientist Ramaz Sakvarelidze while assessing this court decision.

According to him, it is hard to say whether or not the government was defeated as it is unknown why they started this case in the beginning.

“The people’s reaction to this case was unexpectable. People’s support decided that the government needs to take a more modest step. This is not a defeat since it is not a fight. If the government saw that their step was unprofitable, it should be welcome,” – stated Sakvarelidze.

However, according to him, the case of photo reporters was unpleasant fragment both for the society and the government.