Batumi City Court delays the consideration of Natia Kapanadze's lawsuit without justification

Today, 2 years have passed since Natia Kapanadze, the former director of the LEPL Public Broadcaster of Adjara TV and Radio, filed a lawsuit to the Batumi City Court. As it is known to the public, in 2019, the Advisory Board of the Broadcaster declared a vote of no confidence in Natia Kapanadze and removed her from her position. The declaration of no confidence gave rise to the feeling that the disputed decision was based not on legal arguments but was dictated by the government's interest to change the broadcaster's editorial policy. Subsequent developments at the broadcaster confirmed these suspicions.

In a lawsuit filed with the Batumi City Court on April 30, 2019, Natia Kapanadze requests the annulment of the decision on the issue of no confidence, reinstatement in the position, reimbursement of the forcibly unpaid salary and annulment of the competition for the position of director. The lawsuit substantiates that:

-  The Advisory Board decided to declare a vote of no confidence in the Director by violating procedural norms.

- In making its decision, the Advisory Board had not studied any of the issues on which the no-confidence motion was based.

- The 2017 and 2018 Advisory Board reports do not indicate that the organization’s director or the organization itself has any problems. Also, according to the results of the external audits of 2017 and 2018, the organization has no financial problems.

Although 2 years have passed since the filing of the lawsuit, no hearing has been held on the case so far. However, despite the written request, the court still did not notify in writing what became the reason for the delay in hearing the case. According to the explanation received during the telephone conversation, the delay of the case was conditioned by the "current situation in the country."

GYLA considers that the hearing of Natia Kapanadze's case is artificially delayed and calls on the Batumi City Court to deliver its judgment on this case as soon as possible.