A court in Tbilisi ruled on Thursday to return the assets and reinstate the broadcasting license of Imedi, which was shut down on November 7 for allegedly inciting violence in the ex-Soviet Caucasus state.
"There is practically no broadcasting equipment left," Giorgy Targamadze, head of political programs at the channel, told reporters. "Monitors have been destroyed, the archives have disappeared. Special satellite transmitting equipment has also gone."
Asked if Imedi would resume broadcasts ahead of early presidential elections in Georgia, General Director Bidzina Baratashvili replied bitterly: "What elections? Those to take place on January 5 or the future ones?"
Georgia's Western allies joined the opposition in calls for the ban on Imedi broadcasts to be lifted, with the opposition citing a lack of access to state media in the run-up to the snap polls.
The Imedi mangers were only allowed to enter the company's main building late on Thursday.
"At 11 p.m., we were allowed into the building," Imedi lawyer Ioseb Baratashvili said. "It was a terrible sight. Equipment had either been destroyed or taken away."
Baratashvili said financial documents had been removed as well. He said the company would hold a meeting on Friday to start assessing the damage, which would include lost advertising profits. He said the process would take at least a week.
A rights ombudsman, who accompanied the channel managers when they entered the offices, called the situation "vandalism." "Private property was destroyed. Those who ordered the destruction must be brought to justice," Sozar Subari said.
Imedi is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and, according to some reports, the Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, although the businessman said he had sold his 49% share in the company to the corporation in 2006.
Patarkatsishvili, who is suspected by Georgian authorities of seeking to instigate a coup during November's protests, has announced plans to run for president. The businessman currently lives abroad.
President Mikheil Saakashvili called early elections after riot police had clamped down on protesters in Tbilisi, who demanded his resignation over corruption allegations.
