The Daily Beat: 10 April
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili started a working week by visiting a High Council of Justice, voicing the government’s rock-solid support to judicial authorities amid the imposition of US sanctions and accusations of corruption. Irakli Garibashvili decried any interference with the independent court of a sovereign country, calling it “unacceptable and inadmissible.” Speaking after a meeting with the High Council of Justice members at the Supreme Court, the prime minister said it was disturbing to hear firsthand information about some cases of pressure and interference, though refusing to disclose the details of “the closed-door meeting.” Garibashvili’s support visit to the High Council of Justice was met with a friendly welcome and reciprocal benevolence. One of the sanctioned judges, Levan Murusidze, described the prime minister as a guarantor of independence and sovereignty.
While the incumbent prime minister backed sanctioned judges, the former one – Giorgi Gakharia, spoke of the blurring line between the ruling party and the judiciary. In his tweet, Gakharia labeled both the ruling party and the “influence group” of the court as sources of political corruption and Ivanishvili’s illegal power, damaging Georgia’s European integration.
The Foreign Minister of North Macedonia and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Bujar Osmani, arrived in Tbilisi, meeting with the president, foreign minister, and parliament speaker. The war in Ukraine, other regional security challenges, and the situation in the occupied territories of Georgia were among the main topics of Osmani’s Tbilisi talks. Georgian officials briefed the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on the human rights and humanitarian situation in occupied regions, expressing the readiness to continue cooperation with the OSCE in all three dimensions and support OSCE chairmanship priorities. The OSCE Chairman-in-Office will also visit the occupation line and the settlement of internally displaced persons to assess the current situation on the ground.
On Sunday, Georgia honored the heroes of April 9, marking the anniversary of the 1989 massacre of Georgians by Soviet troops. On this day, Georgians traditionally pay tribute to the victims of the bloodbath, when at least 21 people were killed and hundreds injured in front of what was then the Government Palace, now the Parliament building in Tbilisi, as Soviet special forces violently broke up a peaceful pro-independence rally. The majority of the victims were women. Government representatives, the president, opposition leaders, and ordinary citizens gathered outside Parliament at the April 9 Memorial to pay tribute to those who died 34 years ago.
Symbolically coinciding with April 9, a major opposition party, the United National Movement, organized a rally involving some other opposition political parties to protest against the government’s pro-Russian policies. Opposition leaders spoke at the rally, saying that the Georgian Dream government deliberately failed to comply with 12 EU conditions. Opposition figures claimed that Georgia still has to fight against the malign Russian influence, as it did 34 years ago on the same day. Demands for releasing political prisoners were also aired during the 9 April rally.
