Supreme Court Chairman on the probable influence of gov’ on judges

Supreme Court Chairman Kote Kublasvili believes that government has the power to influence on the judges by accepting a three-year probationary period for newly recruited judges, before their appointment for life.

The government has gained power to exert pressure on judges, announced Kublasvili at a press-conference on December 30.

"Appointment of judges for a three-year term means that the government has a serious pedal to exert pressure on judges. For these three years, judges will be under control of the High Council of Justice. This means that there is a mechanism by which certain government officials will try to influence judges, at least those judges who are appointed for three years", he said.

"After three years, when the issue of appointing judges will be put on the agenda, this may not occur, because the judges need a minimum of 10 votes from the High Council of Justice to be appointed and judge members of the board are only 9, so we will definitely need one vote by those members, who were chosen by the Parliament Majority, added Kublashvili.

In October 2013, Parliament passed a bill that outlined setting a three-year probationary period for newly recruited judges, before their appointment for life.

Supreme Court Chairman, Kote Kublashvili was against this decision and advised the lawmakers not to hurry with the approval of this amendment and to launch detailed discussions over this issue with all the stakeholders.

Despite this fact, the proposal was approved by the Parliament. Shalva Shavgulidze, a lawmaker from the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority group who initiated the bill, said that the proposal includes a provision to elaborate a detailed criteria and procedures based on which monitoring of judges should be carried out during the probationary period.