Time in Tbilisi: March 28, 2024 18:34
The Georgian parliament has approved 14 of total 19 candidates for lifelong judges of the Georgian Supreme Court amid protests of the opposition and civic groups.
Prosecutor General Shalva Tadumadze, his deputy Mamuka Vasadze and Secretary of Georgia’s High Council of Justice Giorgi Mikautadze are among those approved.
Controversies over the candidates of the Supreme Court started at the end of 2018. Photo: Supreme Court press office.
One candidate, current head of the Georgian Constitutional Court Zaza Tavadze, withdrew his candidacy shortly before the voting.
The opposition and civil groups have been opposing the 20-person list of candidates, saying several of the candidates were government-affiliated or used to deliver unfair verdicts in the past.
A break has been announced in parliament as an unclear substance has been spilled in the session hall with a “very unpleasant smell”as MPs say, causing a delay in a major vote today on the controversial list of judges for the Georgian Supreme Court. Emergency brigades and law enforcers are present at the scene, as several of the MPs feel ill.
Twelve individuals including opposition leaders and members have been detained at parliament earlier today for ‘hooliganism and disobedience to the police’, during a rally opposing a 20-person list of judges nominated for seats on the Georgian Supreme Court. Opposition leaders and members Giorgi Vashadze, Giorgi Tevdoradze, Beso Gazdelian, Guram Chalagashvili, Zurab Kostava, David Kakauridze and Kakhaber Machitidze are among the detainees.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party says it will not vote for several of 20 candidates running for a seat as a Georgian Supreme Court judge, during the voting scheduled on December 12.
Head of the Georgian Constitutional Court Zaza Tavadze, who is on the 20-person list presented to parliament for a lifetime appointment as a judge on the Georgian Supreme Court, has withdrawn his candidacy, citing controversies related to his higher education.
The US Embassy said that the candidate selection process in the High Council of Justice “lacked transparency and resulted in a slate of nominees that did not fully represent the best qualified candidates”.
The Georgian Interior Ministry is investigating who spilled a noxious substance in parliament early yesterday, leading to a pause in the parliamentary session ahead of a major vote and the need to summon ambulances for several MPs.
The European Union has issued a statement on the recent lifetime appointment of 14 Supreme Court judges in Georgia. New EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano released a statement yesterday.
The High Council of Justice has selected six candidates to fill the vacant seats of the lifelong judges at the Georgian Supreme Court. Although the Georgian parliament approved 14 judges in mid-December, six seats still remain vacant now.
The report reads that the final plenary vote on the judicial appointments took place amidst a political crisis, a boycott by the opposition, and widespread calls for an adjournment.
Former Georgian Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze, who resigned in 2018, has been registered to run for the post again after former Chief Prosecutor Shalva Tadumadze was approved as a lifetime judge of the Georgian Supreme Court in December 2019.
The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), an organisation working on human rights issues, calls on Prosecutorial Council not to select former Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze’s candidacy back for the top position.
Former Georgian Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze, who resigned in 2018, might take the post again as he is among the four candidates who were advanced through the selection process by the Prosecutorial Council earlier today.
The Georgian High Council of Justice has nominated Nino Kadagidze as a candidate for the head of Georgian Supreme Court, while the opposition expected former Chief Prosecutor Shalva Tadumadze in the role.
PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Georgia Titus Corlatean and Claude Kern have urged the Georgian authorities to request a Venice Commission opinion on the proposed amendments to the law on the Common Courts for appointing Supreme Court judges.
Supreme Court chair Nino Kadagidze has been elected as the head of Georgia’s High Council of Justice, an independent body which is responsible for the selection and appointment of judges and other legal issues.
The High Council of Justice has appointed 36 judges to appellate and district courts in Georgia. Newly appointed judges who have more than three years of experience in the court system are appointed for life, while the rest are appointed for a probationary period of three years.
The European Union says that revising the selection process of Georgian Supreme Court judges in line with CoE’s Venice Commission recommendations will be a condition for the disbursement of the second tranche of macro-financial assistance to Georgia under its current programme.On 1 April, the Georgian parliament adopted legislative amendments reviewing the selection process of Supreme Court judges.
The Lelo opposition party has submitted a bill requesting the state legislature declare a moratorium on the election of new judges for the country’s Supreme Court and new members in the High Council of Justice before the implementation of the EU-mediated agreement.
The Georgian parliament must ensure transparency in judicial reform, including the appointment of judges, the ambassadors of the European Union and the United States Carl Hartzell and Kelly Degnan, and Head of the Council of Europe Office in Tbilisi Natalia Voutova say in a letter sent to Georgian Parliament Speaker Kakha Kuchava.
EU and US ambassadors to Georgia say that the election of judges to Georgia’s Supreme Court and members of the High Council of Justice should take place only after major justice reforms have been carried out in line with the recent EU-mediated agreement signed by the majority of Georgian political parties back in April 2021.
Four individuals have been elected to Georgia’s High Council of Justice earlier today amid a rally of civic activists and the calls of the US and the EU ambassadors to pause the process.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) says the shortcomings in the process of judicial nominations to Georgia’s Supreme Court put the independence of the judiciary in the country at further risk, despite some recent improvements to the transparency and accountability of the process.
The EU representation to Georgia has refused to attend the hearings of candidates for Georgian Supreme Court judge in the state legislature, as the European Union has been calling on Georgia for several months to carry out a fundamental judiciary reform first.