Georgia, Tbilisi, July 27 / Trend, N. Kirtskhalia /
Switzerland granted political asylum this week to a Georgian journalist.
Vakhtang Komakhidze, the former head of the "Reporter" investigative journalism studio in Tbilisi, received asylum after months of waiting for the Swiss government's decision, Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights NGO head Nana Kakabadze told Trend.
"He contacted me over phone and told me that he received asylum," she said, adding that Switzerland has recognized Komakhidze as a political refugee.
"Switzerland recognized that Komakhidze was being pursued by the authorities, and that his journalistic activities were being hampered," she said.
Komakhidze is well known in Georgia for his investigative reports on the death of Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and his friend Raul Yusupov in February 2005.
Komakhidze made a documentary hinting that Zhvania did not die accidentally from carbon-monoxide poisoning, as was officially reported, and that he was assassinated.