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PM Garibashvili Expresses “Full Support to All Judges”

The Prime Minister today stood by the judges sanctioned by the US State Department last week and expressed his “full support” for them. Speaking after a meeting with the High Council of Justice, at the Supreme Court, he said that at the closed-door meeting, “the details of which he would not discuss”, he had heard a lot of information, including “among which, the information about certain pressure, interference was disturbing. It is absolutely unacceptable, and I also heard a lot of good initiatives and new ideas that exist in the Council and we talked about them.”

PM also said that: “Any interference in any way with the independent court of a sovereign country is unacceptable and inadmissible”.

He stressed that as a result of reforms under the Georgian Dream government, the Georgian judiciary “has become a model for the whole EU”. He said that he would do his utmost to ensure that the court system was free from outside influence, adding: “I’m proud of our court system, Georgian judges, they are professionals who serve their country and its strengthening, defend our sovereignty and national policy… I’d like to thank them for their service”.

Asked whether he had received information about specific cases of pressure on judges, PM Garibashvili said: “I confirm that I have received this information. I will inform you about it later. I received information from Dimitri Gvritishvili, other judges, members of the Council. It was a closed meeting, I cannot speak about these facts publicly, but the time will come and the public will know about it.”

He added that the current government tries to avoid “any extra contacts” with judges and “in addition to the fact that we only support our judges, the court, we have reduced these contacts and meetings as much as possible.” “If there is a desire and it concerns a specific case, I, as Prime Minister and head of the government, am always ready to hear information from the judges, to share their concerns, and after that we will plan what steps we can take together,” the PM noted.

Asked whether he agreed with the Georgian judges’ claims that the United States was violating Georgia’s sovereignty, the PM said that no one had seen “any evidence accompanying the decision [to sanction the judges].” “Accordingly, this decision raises a big question mark for me. You have probably read the Foreign Minister’s statement and the letter he sent to his colleague about this,” Garibashvili said, expressing hope that “the truth will come out.”

He also added that the sanctioning of Georgian judges came as “a surprise” to him. “I never heard that there were certain questions. Probably, the opposite should have happened, and if someone has such facts, we are certainly always ready to listen to them,” the PM said.

“It should be the duty of every government and every citizen to help our judges as much as possible to protect their interests and the court; I am doing this as the Prime Minister,” PM Garibashvili said, adding that every citizen should have “a feeling of pride that our court is ahead of many European courts.”

“I ask you to treat all judges with great respect and address them with respect, I ask this as the Prime Minister and I urge you to be correct and address people and citizens correctly,” Garibashvili added.

Statement by the HCoJ Chairperson

Speaking before the Prime Minister, Nino Kadagidze, chairman of the High Council of Justice, said that it was “very regrettable” that there was an attempt “to transfer high political passions to the court.” “Otherwise, I cannot understand the unprecedented and incomprehensible decision of the U.S. Secretary of State to impose sanctions against three sitting and one former judges.”

She clarified that the court has faced a number of challenges over the years, but “there has never been such a real, genuine and tangible achievement as a corruption-free judicial system.” “Accordingly, I cannot accept any statement about the existence of corruption in the court.”

According to Nino Kadagidze, despite her request, they did not provide “not only substantiated evidence, but even assumptions and hints as to what became the basis for accusing my colleagues of corruption.” “I, as the Chairperson of the Supreme Court and the Chairperson of the High Council of Justice, will be the guarantor of the inviolability and freedom of each of us and our judges.”

Similarly to PM’s she remarked that “the Georgian justice is ahead of a number of our neighboring and friendly countries in many aspects.” “Accordingly, I have some hard feelings about the fact that this information may be used on the difficult and very valuable, important path for our country towards European integration,” she noted.

“The time has come when the government should interfere in a number of issues. I believe that a normative framework can be developed on the basis of certain correct views, which will actually rule out any interference in the judiciary and also minimize the influence of politics in the court,” Kadagidze added.

On April 5, the U.S. Department of State announced sanctions against four Georgian judges – Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia and Valerian Tsertsvadze – claiming that they had abused their public positions by engaging in significant corrupt activities. Later that day, a meeting was held at the High Council of Justice, where Judge Dimitri Gvritishvili requested a meeting with the Prime Minister. The sanctioned judges categorically denied the accusations against them and accused the U.S. Embassy of trying to influence the Georgian judiciary. One of them, Irakli Shengelia, intends to sue the U.S. in court for imposing the sanctions.

The representatives of the ruling team followed suit and openly expressed their support for the sanctioned judges. The opposition had an opposite reaction. They asked President Zurabishvili to convene an extraordinary session to set up a parliamentary commission for inquiry into the matter. 46 opposition MPs officially appealed to the President to convene an extraordinary session on April 11.

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This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)

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