High Council of Justice Names 10 Candidates for Supreme Court Judges
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, December 25
The High Council of Justice (HCOJ) of Georgia has named 10 candidates who will be appointed as the judges of the Supreme Court of Georgia in case the lawmakers approve them.
The relevant statement was made by Giorgi Mikautadze, Secretary of the High Council of Justice after the sitting on Monday.
The candidates are: Mariam Tsiskadze, Nino Kadagidze, Mikheil Chinchaladze, Paata Silagadze, Dimitri Gvritishvili, Merab Gabinashvili, Nino Sandodze, Tamar Alania, Giorgi Tkavadze and Giorgi Mikautadze.
The candidates will be submitted to Parliament of Georgia for approval.
According to Mikautadze, all candidates have been selected based on their competence and reputation.
“The Organic Law establishes criteria and principles the judges have to meet. These qualities are honesty and competence,” he added.
Non-judge members of the HCOJ Nazi Janezashvili, Irma Gelashvili and Ana Dolidze did not take part in the voting process in protest.
“I hope the Parliament will not support the list of candidates submitted by the HCOJ,” Nazi Janezashvili told media, who arrived at the sitting with her 2-month child to express her protest towards the justice system in the country.
“When my child grows up, the justice system will still be in the hands of the corrupt judges,” she added.
According to her, the High Council of Justice conducted the voting process of the candidates with procedural violations. Janezashvili added now it is important that the public paid attention to the processes in the Parliament of Georgia.
"I'm shocked by today's decision, which has been adopted by the High Council of Justice. Until the last minute I had hope that the HCOJ would have set at least minimal standards of the procedure but it did not happen so,” she added.
Ana Dolidze also criticized the procedure and the list of the selected candidates. She says the decision of the HCOJ equals “suicide of the justice system.”
“The majority of the Council of Justice actually missed a historic chance - to carry out a function of the independent constitutional body, the greatest duty and responsibility imposed on the HCOJ by the Constitution,” she stressed.
The High Council of Justice of Georgia is the supreme oversight body in charge of regulating the judiciary in the country. It consists of 15 members, and is chaired by the chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and administered in significant part by the Secretary of the High Council of Justice.
Main functions of HCOJ are the organization of qualification exams of judges, selection and appointment of judges of trial and appellate courts, disciplinary proceedings, legislative drafting and analytical work, quality management and relationship with the public.
