Chairman of Ukraine’s ruling Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, echoed the Georgian President’s remark on jailed Mtavari TV founder, Nika Gvaramia, saying “I feel the responsibility and I will act upon it. I take full responsibility and I will act when I decide either to do it or not to do it.”

Arakhamia said, “The journalist’s imprisonment directly blocks the path to the European Union. Salome Zourabishvili’s interview shows that we equally understand the importance of this problem.”

In his Facebook post, Arakhamia went on to say that “The preservation of free expression should serve as Georgia’s main pillar of democracy. This is an issue above politics and needs to be resolved immediately.”

In an interview with Ukrainska Pravda, Zourabichvili was asked if she would pardon Nika Gvaramia who was also sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

She said: “It’s a completely different situation. The one issue that is similar [among the cases], is that the President cannot pardon under pressure, because then pressure can be exerted from within. There are, I think, 3,000 inmates at this stage. Any one of those families, friends, or influence groups can start exerting pressure. So it’s a decision that falls to me. I feel the responsibility and I will act upon it. I take full responsibility and I will act when I decide either to do it or not to do it. But the less pressure from outside, the better for pardoning. Putting pressure on authorities, and asking for answers – that’s a different thing. But, the pardoning – the discretionary power cannot become an issue for pressure.”