Two Members of High Council of Justice Provide a Bill to Oppose ‘Unfair Selection’ of Judges
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, January 16
Two non-judge members of the High Council of Justice, a body which is responsible for appointment of judges in Georgia, Anna Dolidze and Nazi Janezashvili have presented a bill in parliament which, as they say will allow the withdrawal of the controversial list of judges for the Supreme Court and provide clear criteria for the right selection of judges.
The bill comes after the hasty decision of the High Council on 24 December to nominate 10 judges for the Supreme Court of Georgia without previous consultations with the non-judge members and the civil sector.
Dolidze and Janezashvili, as well as the civil sector, part of the ruling party and the opposition strongly criticized the list as it included several judges “linked with politically motivated cases” under the United National Movement leadership.
After the large-scale criticism around the judges, who may be appointed to the Supreme Court for life, the Georgian parliament made a decision to postpone discussions regarding the list until the spring session and vowed that criteria for the selection of judges will also be refined.
Dolidze, who often criticizes the High Council of Justice and its decisions, says that it is good that the ruling party started making “adequate statements” regarding the process of the lifetime appointment of “biased judges.” However, she added that the ruling team must have done this long before.
The Georgia Dream claims that the large-scale discussions will take place around the presented judges and only such decisions will be made which will be in the best interests of the Georgian people.
The United National Movement and the European Georgia opposition say that the founder of the Georgian Dream ruling party, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili is lobbying the list, who is the “real ruler of the country.”
The argument provided by the High Council of Justice, on why they presented the list in the accelerated manner, was that there are 10 judges currently in the High Council of Justice instead of 28 which delays the working process of the court.
The lifetime appointment of judges was introduced under the Georgian Dream leadership to boost the independence of judges. However, the civil sector still criticizes the criteria of selection of judges and the body which select the judges-the High Council of Justice.
The lifetime appointment means serving as a judge until 65.
