Judges deny pressure
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, August 2
“We want to inform society that all questioned judges deny any kind of pressure was exerted on them in order to influence judiciary proceedings,” stated the Prosecutor’s Office in its statement about alleged pressure put on Constitutional Court judges.
On August 1, the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG) released mid-term results of the case, stating that the Chair of the Court, Giorgi Papuashvili, will be questioned this week over his statements that some judges of the Constitutional Court are being pressured and blackmailed by the current authorities in relation to some notorious cases.
“The investigation is ongoing with the aim of revision of the circumstances for the investigation mentioned in the accounts of the judges, which, based on the interests of the investigation, we cannot reveal now. However, information about the results of the investigation will be periodically publicly released,” the statement of POG reads.
According to the agreement between the General Prosecutor and the Chairman of the constitutional court regarding the above-mentioned case, this week, Giorgi Papuashvili's questioning will take place.
“The Court Chair will be questioned next week at the Constitutional Court as he has requested himself,” stated the Prosecutor General of Georgia, Irakli Shotadze, two days ago.
Papuashvili is the only member out of the nine-seat Court who has not been questioned yet. On July 24, he stated that certain judges are being watched and blackmailed in order to make them rule in favour of the government or to hold up verdicts for the GD party.
So far, Papuashvili has met with the President, the Prime Minister, the Prosecutor General and various non-governmental Organisations (NGOs). The third sector claim Papuashvili's accusations pertain to attempts to blackmail judges with video footage of their personal lives.
