Parliament approves majority drafted controversial bill on judges
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, May 2
The Georgian parliament approved the bill drafted by the ruling party MPs on the selection and appointment of the Supreme Court judges with its third and final reading on Wednesday, amid the demands of the opposition to reconsider the bill and statements of several former members of the ruling party that the bill still allows biased judges to stay in the court system until retirement.
The bill was supported by 87 MPs while 33 voted against.
The United National Movement and the European Georgia opposition urged the ruling party to support the return of the bill to its second reading, where more international recommendations could be taken into account.
However, the Georgian Dream MPs refused to do so and stated that the bill already reflects top recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
A former member of the Georgian Dream ruling party Eka Beselia accused Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze, one of the authors of the bill, of lobbying biased judges and stated that the bill will provide “zero improvements” in the court system.
After voting MP Levan Koberidze left the ruling party, cited the bill as the reason.
Acting US Ambassador Ross Wilson stated a couple of days ago that he is a bit disappointed that the bill did not fully reflect the recommendations of the EU, Council of Europe, OSCE and Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.
Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze and several other ruling party MPs drafted a bill on the selection and appointment of judges in the wake of controversial nomination of 10 judges for the Georgian Supreme Court by the High Council of Justice, a body responsible for selection and appointment of judges in the country, back in December 2018.
The nomination was grilled as NGOs, opposition and several members of the ruling party stated that the list included the judges who used to deliver biased verdicts under the United National Movement leadership.
The NGOs and the opposition also criticized the bill drafted by Kobakhidze and five other GD MPs, saying that the bill maintained chances for the “biased judges” stay in the system.
The ruling party requested recommendations from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe to pass the bill which would be “in the interests of all parties.”
The recommendations of the Venice Commission said that the bill should set higher age standard for candidates, non-judge candidates should not be forced to pass an exam in law, a secret balloting should be rejected during voting, a High Council of Justice member, who would run for judge, must be banned from voting and several others.
Out of major recommendations, one, related to secret balloting has not been taken into account.
The ruling party says that they refused to consider the “political part” of the recommendations, which says that the current parliament should not approve 17 judges for the Supreme Court and that it raises questions that the High Council of Justice “which has low trust” in public, will be able to nominate judges for the court.
Currently, there are 11 judges in the Supreme Court when their number must be 28.
Based on the new Georgian constitution, which came into play in December 2018, judges for the Supreme Court are selected by the High Council of Justice and parliament approves them.
