Ruling party head: We will not allow anyone to interfere in Georgian judicial system

Irakli Garibashvili, the new Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party and the former Prime Minister of Georgia, on Sunday said the ruling team would not allow anyone to interfere in the Georgian judicial system.

The Georgian court “stands guard” over the interests of the Georgian people, Garibashvili told the journalists and noted the recent international ratings proved that the country’s court was “one of the best in Europe”, ahead of the European Union membership candidate countries and some bloc member states.

The GD official called the proposal of the opposition United National Movement party on the introduction of vetting of Georgian judges by foreign embassies “an offensive campaign”, adding as a “self-respecting nation, we should not allow someone to check the good faith of our patriotic judges”.

He stressed the importance of respecting the Georgian judges and emphasised that “the vast majority of them are patriots who protect the interests of our country and the interests of our people”.

The Georgian Supreme Court on March 12 said 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”.