Opposition: ruling party founder created a list of lifetime judges
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, June 4
The United National Movement says that those who are liked by Ivanishvili will be selected for lifetime judges of Georgia's Supreme Court.
Comment by Roman Gotsiridze from the opposition came after the presentation of the 144-men list by the High Council of Justice, a body responsible for selection and appointment of judges, last week.
The list includes judges and law professionals who will run for the judge of the Supreme Court, current Chief Prosecutor, the former lawyer of Ivanishvili Shalva Tadumadze among them.
"Only those will be approved, who will be loyal to Ivanishvili," Gotsiridze said.
A member of the European Georgia opposition Elene Khoshtaria called the list "alarming and shocking," adding that the ruling party proposed a bill, approved by parliament this year, which allows "biased and government-obedient judges" to stay in the system and be promoted.
Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze says that Tadumadze is a "high-class" professional, who will play his important role in the Supreme Court [if approved].
The parliament will finally vote for 10 judges for the Supreme Court from the 144, who will be permitted to stay there until retirement [65], based on the change of lifetime appointment which was initiated by the Georgian Dream government in 2015 to "provide higher guarantees to stay impartial," for judges.
The nomination and the selection of judges will take place after the turmoil at the end of 2018 when the High Council of Justice presented a list of 10 judges for Supreme Court.
The opposition and NGOs grilled the list, stated it included the judges who used to make biased decisions under the United National Movement government.
Following the controversies all of the 10 candidates removed their nominations and the Georgian Dream ruling party vowed the creation of the bill which would have removed question marks on the selection and appointment procedures of Supreme Court Judges.
The bill was drafted by Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze and ruling party MPs and was sent to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe for the assessment.
The recommendations of the Venice Commission said that the bill should have set a higher age standard for candidates; non-judge candidates should not have been forced to pass an exam in law; a secret balloting should have been rejected during voting; a High Council of Justice member, who would have run for judge, must have been banned from voting and several others.
The Georgian Dream said that they would not have considered the "political aspect" of the recommendations. The ruling party also said that the current parliament should not have approved most of the judges for the Supreme Court and that it raised questions that the High Council of Justice, "which has low trust" in public, would have been able to select and nominate judges for the court.
Secret balloting remained in force, as well as the younger age of judges, while the members of the High Council of Justice, who will run for the Supreme Court judge, will be deprived of the right to vote and the exam was also removed.
The bill, which was disliked by NGOs, Public Defender, and the opposition, was approved earlier this year.
Currently, there are 11 judges in the Supreme Court when their number must be 28.
Based on the new Georgian constitution, which came into play in December 2018, judges for the Supreme Court are selected by the High Council of Justice and parliament approves them.
