Ruling party asks Venice Commission to help settle Georgian court-related row
The Georgian Dream ruling party says it will not support the bill related to the selection and appointment of judges drafted by nine of its own members. Photo: Georgian Dream press office.
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The Georgian Dream ruling party has asked the Council of Europe Venice Commission to get involved in the drafting of a bill which will set criteria for the selection and the appointment of Georgian judges.
The statement comes after turmoil related to ten judges nominated for the Supreme Court of Georgia in December 2018.
Read more:
- Eka Beselia quits as Parliament’s Legal Committee head due to ‘unacceptable process’ related to judges
- Ruling party founder Ivanishvili reveals his view on recent turmoil on judges for Supreme Court
- Ruling party says accelerated discussion of controversial list of judges not on the agenda
- Ruling party says Georgian court is being deliberately discredited
Judges nominated for the Supreme Court later removed their candidacies. Photo: Supreme Court of Georgia.
The ruling party stated that they will not support the bill drafted by its member Eka Beselia and eight other ruling party legislators, offering the postponement of the lifetime appointment of the judges of the first and the second instances of courts until 2025.
The bill was drafted without the agreement of the party and it also contradicts the state constitution, which was drafted with the help of the Council of Europe Venice Commission,” the party says.
They claim that the current constitution speaks about an increase of the number of judges at least by 100, ‘when the bill by Beselia says that the number should be decreased’.
“The decrease will put the Georgian court system in a grave situation and may block its activities [due to the absence of sufficient number of judges],” the statement of the Georgian Dream political council reads.
Beselia says that the ruling party knew about the bill and that if some formulation of the bill is unacceptable for the party members, they could be changed through consultations.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has denied any connection between the fact that the Legal Affairs Committee head Eka Beselia and its member Gedevan Popkhadze left the ruling party majority and the controversial process of appointing judges in the country.
Georgia Dream ruling party member Eka Beselia, who left the post of the head of the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee at the end of December, says that she is facing a moral terror as footage of her personal life has gone viral.
The High Council of Justice (HCJ), an independent body responsible for the selection and appointment of judges, has appointed Levan Murusidze, a judge disliked by the civil sector and many in the Georgian Dream ruling party, as a lifetime judge to the Court of Appeals.
Head of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee Eka Beselia has quit the post and stated at a briefing today that her decision was related to the “hasty and unacceptable” process of lifetime appointment of judges with a “controversial past” to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Levan Gogichaishvili has quit the Georgian Dream (GD) ruling party today after the party members refused or refrained from supporting the bill regarding the court proposed by him and eight other legislators of the ruling party.
Eka Beselia, former head of the Georgian Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, has announced she is leaving the Georgian Dream ruling party, saying that the party had “betrayed its values.”
Georgian MP Zviad Kvachantiradze has left the ruling Georgian Dream party and its faction in parliament.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has ended his visit in Poland with a meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe says that it is ready to help Georgia make clear and transparent procedures for the selection and appointment of judges, which has become one of the top issues of discussion over the past two months.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has welcomed the amendments provided by the Georgian Interior Ministry to the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, which strongly separates the obligations of prosecution and investigators.
Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani says that a bill drafted by Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze and six other ruling party MPs fully meets the recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has released an evaluation of a bill put forward by ruling Georgian Dream party MPs concerning the long-disputed issue of the lifetime appointment of judges to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Ruling Georgian Dream party member Archil Talakvadze says that two of the Venice Commission recommendations regarding the bill on the selection and appointment procedures of the Georgian Supreme Court judges have already been taken into account and the related sections in the bill have been amended.
Georgian MP and former member of the ruling Georgian Dream party Eka Beselia has founded a new political party ‘For Justice’.
The co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Georgia welcome steps aimed to make the process of selecting Supreme Court judges more transparent. At the same time, they express “serious concern” at the manner in which the High Council of Justice prepared the list of candidates for parliament.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has released its opinion on the Georgian amendments to the court system which were adopted in September 2020, expressing worries that the Georgian parliament did not wait for its assessments.