Kibar Khalvashi has released a statement in relation to the court decision. 

“Misha Saakashvili was defeated at court today and he is no longer the owner of the Rustavi 2 TV Company. This is  what I have been struggling for during ten years. It"s always worth to fight. Today’s verdict represents a real beginning of restoration of justice. 

No matter how the process continues in other courts, I am still the winner as I have proved my innocence not by means of pressure and intimidation but court and the Odessa Governor who wished to destroy me got the right answer. I understand that National Movement and Saakashvili himself has turned my legal struggle to bring Rustavi 2 back into a matter of uproar. But today I care for an absolutely different thing. I mean the fate of the people that have been in the false and propagandist mechanism of the TV companies intimidated by MIkheil Saakashvili for years. 

I mean the Rustavi 2 employees. I addressed them yesterday and would like to do the same now – I understand the terror Rustavi 2 owner Mikheil Saakashvili implemented but it has ended! I would like to assure and promise you that no professionals will be dismissed,” Khibar Khalvashi says.

According to him it is possible to make a critical, profitable and independent TV business of high quality in Georgia. “We will make it together,” he says.

“A great evil has been defeated. Congratulations!” – concludes the statement by Georgian businessman Kibar Khalvashi.