The Revenue Service withdrew on October 22 its lawsuit against the International Black Sea University (IBSU), effectively lifting a freeze on the university assets. The decision comes after IBSU, a Gülen-affiliated university in Tbilisi, paid its budgetary debt worth GEL 715,000.
“The Revenue Service deemed it expedient that there is no legal ground for continuing the court dispute, and therefore, we decided to withdraw our lawsuit,” Nino Sokhashvili of the Revenue Service noted, adding that the proceedings would resume, should IBSU accrue the debt again.
IBSU lawyer Mariam Chikovani hailed the step as “an absolutely correct decision,” as there “are no legal grounds” to continue the dispute. Chikovani said that the decision would enable the university “to carry on with its normal work.”
The decision to lift the asset freeze paves the way for the university to restore its right to accept first-year students for the 2018-2019 academic year. IBSU was stripped of this right on August 20 by the National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement (NCEQE), an agency of the Georgian Ministry of Education, citing the Revenue Service freeze.
The NCEQE authorization council is to reconvene on the matter in coming days.
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