Georgian Parliament Speaker vows to “do everything” to stop “unjust attacks” on court

Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Saturday vowed to “do everything” to stop “unjust attacks” on the court, aiming to damage the reputation of the judiciary system, as well as the country.

In his social media post, Papuashvili addressed the “recent attacks” on judges of the Georgian Supreme Court and said that the proposal of the opposition United National Movement party on the introduction of vetting of Georgian judges by foreign embassies would “unequivocally, essentially and fundamentally undermine independence of the court or individual judges” and “damage public trust” in the country’s justice system.

• Georgian Supreme Court: calls for judge vetting “fundamentally undermine” independence of court, “damage public trust” in justice system

The Parliament Speaker noted it was “regrettable” that because of “several non-governmental organisations”, whose goal was to “gain political power” in the country, the participation of foreign organisations in Georgia’s judicial system was “equated with hostile rhetoric against judges and moral terror against their family members, and everything that is anti-European”.

• Georgian Parliament Speaker claims “orchestrated attacks” on domestic judiciary by NGOs, opposition, foreign offices

He once again affirmed his respect to Nino Kadagidze, the Chair of the Georgian Supreme Court and to the Georgian judges.

The Court on March 12 claimed the calls for vetting requirements were a “manipulative, artificially created concern” about the justice system by “interested parties” and rejected vetting as not being representative of “the international standard”. It also said this “harshly violates the sovereignty of the state” and “envisages transferring mechanisms of staffing of court - one of the branches of the state government - to the hands of external actors”.