European Parliament: Tsulukiani promotes Georgia’s independent justice system

"Justice in Georgia can be trusted,” is how Georgia’s Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani described Georgia’s reformed justice system while delivering a speech to the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee today.

Minister Thea Tsulukiani spoke about the reforms being implemented by her Ministry and stressed that all these reforms aimed to get Georgia closer to the European Union’s (EU) legal system.

The Minister noted that signing the Association Agreement (AA) with the EU was "very important” to the Georgian people and that Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili was personally leading the implementation of all obligations under the AA agreement.

"The Government’s attention is now fully focused on those reforms on which we took on the responsibility to implement when we signed the AA. These reforms will accelerate the fulfillment of peoples’ dreams and Georgia will become a full member of the European family,” she said from Brussels.

Tsulukiani told the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee about the country’s justice reform, prosecution reform and the changes implemented in the field of human rights.

"Last year I promised you … that the vicious practice of plea bargaining would change in Georgia and we have done this. Today, plea bargaining is a necessary and appropriate tool in the hand of justice. We have increased the rights of victims to the minimum standard stipulated by European law,” Tsulukiani said.

In addition, she spoke about the free and democratic self-government elections recently held in Georgia, to which the Free and Fair Elections Commission, led by Tsulukiani, made a significant contribution.

The progress Georgia has made in fighting corruption was highlighted, and the Minister noted that accountability and transparency under the current Government was the reason why Georgia was elected as a member of the executive committee of the Open Government Partnership Initiative.

After her 10-minute speech, Tsulukiani answered questions of the Committee members, which touched upon the current political situation in the country.

One person asked what she thought of the recent PACE resolution on the functioning of democratic institutions in Georgia. The Parliament member accepted there had been progress in the country but this had been overshadowed by the arrest of former government officials and the use of selective justice.

To this Tsulukiani replied: "Selective justice, this is a word you hear very often from friends of Georgia. We are being watched carefully and Georgia’s friends care what happens in the country and [they care] about our reform process. This time the friends of Georgia understand that the criminal cases pending against former government officials are supported by facts. Facts that are disturbing in each case,” Tsulukiani noted.

"Nobody can deny that there are facts behind the criminal cases and that we have been doing everything to ensure judiciary reform and free and fair trials. We cannot tell victims they will have no justice. The cases exist.”

"This is an issue of perception. We are working hard to strengthen the independence of judges and of course there are still shortcomings in the judiciary reform but today judges are independent and allow themselves reasonable doubt to benefit defendants. Justice in Georgia can be trusted, judges can be trusted,” she said.

As for the PACE resolution, Tsulukiani said it showed that the current Georgian opposition did everything to undermine the trust PACE members had in their own rapporteurs.

"[Georgia’s opposition] succeeded and this is not good news for PACE as an institution. When the current opposition was in government and they were criticised by our EU friends, their reply was to say ‘you are Russian spies or friends’. The current Government listens to criticism,” the Minister noted.

Before her speaking time at the meeting ended, Tsulukiani reiterated that in today’s climate Georgia had a significantly different justice environment than in the past. She emphasized that the court was independent from executive branch control.

"We do not need an obedient court. We try to promote the principle of competition in the court through correct reforms and this effort was highly evaluated by the Venice Commission,” she said.