Non-Judge Members of HCOJ Ask for Legislative Changes into Nomination of Judges
By Tea Mariamidze
Monday, December 31
Non-judge members of the High Council of Justice (HCOJ) Anna Dolidze and Nazi Janezashvili call on the parliament to implement legislative changes into the nomination of the judges.
Dolidze and Janezashvili believe that it is necessary to make amendments that will allow the parliament to elect "only honorable judges” and at the same time will ensure that the Council of Justice will select candidates with a common consensus and not by a majority vote as it happened last week.
On 24 December eight HCOJ members supported ten judges for the Supreme Court of Georgia without previous warning of non-judge members of the council.
Dolidze and Janezashvili called the list “shameful” and an “attempt to kill the Georgian judiciary,” as according to them many in the list are affiliated with the United National Movement government and unfair verdicts.
The women speak of the existence of a ‘clan’ inside the judiciary, adding if the legislative changes are adopted, this will weaken the positions of some influential people in the HCOJ and let every member participate in the selection process of judges equally.
“We appeal to the parliament of Georgia to make amendments to the legislation and determine the rules of the nomination of the Supreme Court judges,” Janezashvili stated at the special press-conference.
The HCOJ non-judge members also commented on the meeting of the Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze and Giorgi Mikautadze, Secretary of the High Council of Justice, which took place on December 28.
They believe this meeting “can be seen as support to the clan and it is unacceptable” because Mikautadze also wants to participate in the selection process and become a lifetime judge.
“We learned that Irakli Kobakhidze met with the Secretary of the Council, Giorgi Mikautadze. In light of the recent developments, this meeting can be perceived as an expression of support to the clan by the Chairman of Parliament. So this meeting is unacceptable," said Ana Dolidze.
The Coalition for Independent and Transparent Judiciary, which united around 40 NGOs, also released a statement, saying they are concerned by the nomination of candidates for the Supreme Court Justice position by the High Council of Justice on December 24.
“The nomination was made without observing any procedures and majority of the candidates nominated are associated with unlawful and unjust justice for the society. It is clear that confirmation of the nominated candidates by the parliament will bring about further strengthening of the clan governance of the judiciary and will make independence of judiciary an impossible feat for the decades to come,” the statement reads.
The coalition believes that the nomination of the candidates by the HCOJ did not observe the Constitutional objectives and even the minimal procedural standards.
“The majority of the influential group has a bad reputation due to the many politically motivated cases they considered in the past,” they said.
Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze stated on December 27 that the legislative body will discuss the candidates of the Supreme Court of Georgia during the spring session.
He explained that the postponement is to ensure the staffing of the Supreme Court with highly qualified personnel.
