Today, lawyers the “Art Group,” “International Bolding Company” and Ltd “Priza” will sue the Georgian government at Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.
According to the suit Art Group demands reimbursement of the damage in the amount of 100 million USD.
Dimitri Gabunia, lawyer for the Art Group, stated that with the support of Ministry of Finance Georgian government blatantly breached the law and issued tens of administrative acts and as a result the enterprises and their share values were completely destroyed. According to Gabunia, currently Art Group, International Bolding Company and Priza are no longer functioning. Nearly 4 000 employees were fired; these companies have had their contracts with Procter and Gamble canceled.
Gabunia claims that the property of Art Group is destroyed; the enterprise has ran up astronomic tax arrears.
“Art Group paid over 70 million GEL to the state budget during last five years. The business of these companies was attacked that caused because businessman Kibar Khalvashi was the owner of it,” said the attorney [it is an open secret that Khalvashi is a close friend and reportedly subservient to the scandal-prone but influential former Georgian Defense Minister, Georgia Irakli Okruashvili who was granted political asylum in France. Yet Khalvashi has been widely perceived as only a straw man in front of Okruashvili political and financial interests].
“Court does not only try to legalize illegal decision of corresponding institutions, but they carry out trails with blatant violation of procedural norms without investigating case materials and rapidly,” stated Dimitri Gabunia and added that the aim of this campaign is to finish court hearings soon in order to assist a certain person to get hold of the sold out property.
Source: Medianews