Working group to determine suitability of Supreme Court candidates
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Friday, September 13
A working group has been set up within the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Georgia to determine the compliance of candidates for the Supreme Court with the legislation.
The working group will include seven representatives of the Georgian Dream, independent MP Levan Gogichaishvili. The working group will have three quotas for "European Georgia", one for the National Movement and one for the Alliance of Patriots.
Otar Kakhidze, a spokesman for European Georgia, noted that their participation in the working group would depend on the format and composition of the working group. According to him, if the work of the group is technical, they will not participate in it.
According to the Chairman of the Committee on Legal Issues, Anri Okhanashvili, the working group will work for ten days, and on September 23, the committee will hear the candidates of the Supreme Court.
According to Okhanashvili, it is the task of the government to select competent and conscientious judges in the process of selection of candidates for the Supreme Court, who are highly qualified as judges. According to him, the Legal Affairs Committee will ensure that the process is conducted in the most transparent and reasonable time.
At a news conference, he spoke about the task force to establish compliance with the legislation of candidates for the Supreme Court.
According to the MP, all parliamentary factions from the majority and the opposition accepted the proposal to join the working group. The working group will also include representatives of the academic community and trade unions, including Dean of the Law Faculty of Tbilisi State University, Professor Tamar Zarandia and Member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, Academician Joni Khetsuriani.
“There is an important process going on in the Parliament of Georgia to discuss and interview candidates for justice. The law passed by Parliament provided for an unprecedentedly open, transparent and lengthy selection process for judges to be elected to the Supreme Court. Before the law was adopted, the public did not know what criteria the person was nominated by the President of Georgia and no public interviews were being conducted…For the first time in Georgia, the society has the opportunity to observe and be directly involved in the most important process, " noted Okhanashvili.
According to Okhanashvili, the non-governmental sector processes information about each candidate. He also explained that he had direct communication with the Public Defender and suggested that to be involved in the process, though, for some objective reasons, the Public Defender will not participate in the process.
Meanwhile, Okhanashvili also responded to the statements of NGO representatives and noted that according to the regulations, there is no obligation to involve NGOs in the working group.
“We are following the American model, which does not involve NGOs in the working group. According to the American model, only senators are involved in this process, and we have gone further, involving representatives of the academic community and trade unions, and this process will be open. I offered the NGOs to put the questions in the format of the committee” explained MP.
The Supreme Council has completed interviews with 50 candidates seeking in August, selecting 20. The list of candidates for the Supreme Court Judiciary was presented to Parliament on September 7.
