Ex-Chief Prosecutor Shotadze on verge of being reelected to post
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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 Prosecutorial Council, which selects candidates for the prosecutor general, made the choice between 15 nominees presented by NGOs and the academic field.
The other three candidates are Valerian Vacharadze, Dariko Dortia and Sophio Shengelaia.
The council will select one candidate of the four tomorrow and present for a vote in parliament.
The Georgian Dream ruling party MPs say that they will vote for Shotadze if he is selected.
Shotadze, who was the first Georgian prosecutor general elected by parliament in 2015, was nominated for the post by a legal entity, the Georgian Technical University.
He resigned on May 31, 2018, after Tbilisi City Court delivered its verdict in the high profile murder case of two teenage boys in central Tbilisi in December 2017.
The post of prosecutor general became vacant after former Chief Prosecutor Shalva Tadumadze was approved as lifetime judge of the Georgian Supreme Court in December 2019.
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.
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.
The atmosphere around the Georgian parliament building earlier today was tense after civic activists were refused by police to enter the legislative body and attend the hearing of former Prosecutor General Irakli Shotadze, who has been nominated for the post again, at Parliament's Legal Issues’ Committee later today. Civic activists say that Shotadze does not deserve the post and his re-proposal was the “personal decision” of the founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Members of opposition parties and their supporters are now holding a rally by the parliament building in central Tbilisi, protesting Irakli Shotadze’s possible re-election as prosecutor general.
Georgian parliament has approved Irakli Shotadze as the country's prosecutor general for the second time amid a boycott of the parliamentary opposition and several independent MPs.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze has stated that 15,625 individuals were charged in 2020 by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, while the figure stood at 19,114 in 2019.
Georgian prosecutor general Irakli Shotadze on Thursday said his body’s recently signed cooperation agreement with the European public prosecutor's office was “another step taken for Georgia’s EU membership”.