Georgia appoints permanent judges
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, October 31
Georgia now has twelve permanently appointed judges after the candidates underwent a three-year mandatory test period.
The judges will serve in the role until they are old enough to be entitled to a pension, which is 60 years of age for females and 65 for males.
However, in case any violations are committed they will be held accountable, as happens with all other judges..
The judges were appointed by the country’s High Council of Justice, an independent body created to coordinate the judiciary system and to promote the effectiveness and independence of the judiciary.
The Council was observing the activities of the judges in the test period and gave scores for their actions.
After the expiration of the test time, the Council evaluated how professionally the judges acted based on the accumulated scores.
The judges requited the support of 2/3 of 14 members of the High Council of Justice to be appointed as permanent judges after expiring the test period.
Changes in the law in terms of the permanent appointment of judges were carried out under the Georgian Dream government in 2013 with the motivation to boost the independence of judges.
A local NGO, Transparency International Georgia, says they are going to demand extra information about the assessment procedures and scores from the High Council which decided how the judges were appointed.
The opposition stated that some of the judges were inappropriate choice for permanent position, as they had shown biased attitude towards the government in some notorious cases.
