Minister of Justice Looks Forward to 2015
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, October 16
Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani is looking forward to 2015, when the Head of the Supreme Court Kote Kublashvili retires.
Tsulukiani hopes that instead, Georgia will have a worthy chairperson of the court, who will seek ways to empower judges, making them more competent.
“The question marks that exist in terms of judges currently are the merit of the United National Movement, which did its best to suppress the freedom and autonomy of judges. They appointed incompetent to juridical posts and made them deliver politically motivated verdicts,” Tsulukiani said.
Tsulukiani stated that the United National Movement appears to be involved in various wrongdoings even now.
“I do not doubt the possibility that the National Movement, through pre-planned offenses, is still trying to show the public that the crime rate has increased in Georgia,” Tsulukiani said, noting that the current government has no contact with criminal bosses unlike the previous government members.
“I know only one father of crime bosses and he is Givi Targamadze,” Tsulukiani said.
Responding to the statements, Kublashvili admitted that it was better for Tsulukiani to think more about the government reshuffle that is planned in the autumn rather than his term’s expiration.
When it came to judges’ competence, Kublashvili stressed that an individual who is not a lawyer cannot assess a judge’s professionalism.
“Our judges have confirmed many times that they are competent. In general, Tsulukiani knows why the current court system is so unbiased. The major aim of the reform launched by the minister was to fire those judges who are unfavorable. She has stated several times that the judges hinder her efforts to carry out the reform and voiced their names,” Kublashvili said.
Members of the United National Movement keep stating that the current government has failed to meet its pre-election promises and is trying to accuse the opposition in its failure.
Kublashvili’s tenure in his current post expires in February of 2015.
