Reactions to Court’s Suspension of President’s Decree to Appoint HCoJ Member

In an unprecedented decision, the Tbilisi City Court on July 22 suspended Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili’s decree appointing Kakha Tsikarishvili as a member of the Board of the High Council of Justice (HCoJ), a right guaranteed to her by the country’s Constitution.

The court’s decision, which was immediately denounced by the President’s Parliamentary Secretary as a “direct” and “illegal” interference in the President’s constitutional right, was also criticized by local NGOs and opposition politicians, who point to it as yet another reflection of “clan rule” in the Georgian judiciary and an alarming violation of the country’s main law by the court itself.

We have collected some of the reactions to the court decision:

Kakha Tsikarishvili, who was appointed to the HCoJ by President Zurabishvili and whose appointment was suspended by the Court, says: “I don’t think this is just a problem of interaction between a particular candidate and the judiciary, I think this is a reaction of the system to my appointment, and I think the system is taking all measures to prevent me from becoming a member of the HCoJ… Theoretically, the judiciary can block this issue for years, but we should see how the process will develop in practice.”

Ruling Party:

Davit Matikashvili, Georgian Dream: “The President’s right is the President’s right. The court decides independently on the issues related to it, because the judiciary is an independent pillar of the government… You, who represent the media controlled by the radical opposition, want to present the picture of how the government interferes in the court’s work. The government does not interfere in the court’s work. The court has its own agenda and decides on its own who to appoint to a particular position.”

Irakli Kadagishvili, Georgian Dream: “There is no violation of principle of separation [in this case]. So, the President has her exclusive right and her representative in the High Council of Justice cannot be appointed by anyone else… The Constitutional right is also that if someone is an appellant, the Court must also consider it. So the court has decided and approved the appellant’s complaint.”

Opposition:

Coalition for Changes (Ahali, Girchi-More Freedom, Droa joint statement): “With this decision, the judicial clan has violated the basic principle of separation of powers and appropriated the Constitutional right of the Georgian President. While the comprehensive reform of the judiciary is one of the nine conditions for Georgia’s integration into the EU, with this illegal decision the Georgian Dream once again takes a step that damages our historic choice. This fact is another confirmation that under the GD government the country will not become a member of the EU.”

Ana Natsvlishvili, Lelo for Georgia: “With yesterday’s decision, the court has committed a legal absurdity, it has abolished the presidential discretion guaranteed by the Constitution. You will not find a qualified lawyer in the country who will say that the court had the right to do this. Yesterday the court abolished the Constitution of the country and why is it doing this? For the comfort of the clan and to keep the eyes and ears of the society outside the judicial system and not to provide you, the society, the citizens of the country with the information about what injustices and crimes are happening in the judicial system.

Giorgi Vashadze, Strategy Aghmashenebeli / Unity – to Save Georgia: “The EU integration process is stopped, to which the Georgian Dream adds disregard for the Constitution, direct and gross interference in the rights of the President, clear exposure of clan justice and, unfortunately, another hard blow to Georgia’s European integration process. So, unfortunately, there exists neither a Constitution nor a law”.

Maia Kopaleishvili, Ahali / Coalition for Changes: “[Tbilisi] City Court, and thus the clan that rules in the judiciary, violated the Constitution, went beyond the constitutional framework, and actually appropriated the right of the Georgian President. It’s not within the court’s purview to examine the decree of the Georgian president in the first place, because the decree is not an administrative legal act, which the city court’s administrative judge has the competence to review.”

Gia Japaridze, Unity – to Save Georgia: “Yesterday, Georgian Dream once again violated the Georgian Constitution… It [GD] has been outside the Constitutional framework for a long time… Instead of fulfilling the EU’s nine steps, the Georgian government is taking yet another step that hinders Georgia on the path of European integration…GD does not want Georgia’s membership in the EU. GD is the only obstacle on Georgia’s path to EU membership. All of us together must defeat the Georgian Dream on October 26 [election day]. We must remove this obstacle that is keeping us away from the EU and bring Georgia back to the EU integration process.”

More to follow…

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