NGO calls on Prosecutorial Council not to select Irakli Shotadze’s candidacy for prosecutor general
Irakli Shotadze was the first Georgian prosecutor general who was elected by parliament in 2015. Photo: Netgazeti
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The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) calls on the Prosecutorial Council not to approve former Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze’s candidacy again for this top position.
EMC stated earlier today that the Prosecutorial Council, which is responsible for the final selection of prosecutor general, should consider that Shotadze resigned less then a year ago amid large-scale public protest following a court verdict in a high profile murder case of two teenage boys.
Irakli Shotadze’s resignation meant the recognition of his political responsibility… With this background, Shotadze’s candidacy has no public trust and discussion of his candidacy for the prosecutor general’s position creates risks to further strengthen the polarisation of the system”, EMC stated.
The NGO also noted that none of the other high-profile cases, including those of Temirlan Machalikashvili and Afgan Mukhtarli, have been investigated under Irakli Shotadze’s tenure as Prosecutor General.
Therefore, EMC calls on the Prosecutorial Council to select and submit to parliament for final approval politically neutral candidates with relevant qualification for the prosecutor general’s position.
The Prosecutor General's position became vacant after Shalva Tadumadze was approved as a lifetime judge of the Georgian Supreme Court in December 2019.
Ruling party MPs Mamuka Mdinaradze and Giorgi Volski have promised to vote again for Irakli Shotadze, “a professional and a worthy man,” if he is selected as the country’s prosecutor general by the Prosecutorial Council in the coming months. Zaza Saralidze, father of deceased minor David Saralidze, whose son’s case became the reason for Shotadze’s resignation, says that Shotadze’s “return to the battlefield will be dignified.”
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 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.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze has resigned in the wake of the Tbilisi City Court verdict on the high profile murder case of two teenage boys in central Tbilisi in December last year. In a special statement released on the official page of the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office, Shotadze stated that his body has taken all measures to establish the truth on the case.
Former Georgian Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze, who resigned in 2018, has been selected among four shortlisted candidates for the same post by the Prosecutorial Council earlier today. Now the council will present Shotadze in parliament for a vote.