Non-Governmental Sector Continues to Call for Dismissal of Justice Minister
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, June 19
Georgian non-governmental sector believes that the current Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani should not be in the new composition of the cabinet, which will be presented by the designate Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze in the coming days.
The third sector believes that there is a negative attitude towards the Justice Minister from the society, adding Tsulukiani failed to carry out effective justice reforms.
Executive Director of the NGO Transparency International Georgia, Eka Gigauri says that the new PM should choose a person who will be able to carry out fundamental and effective reforms in the justice system.
"The Ministry of Justice has been ineffective for the last six years, and the public still has a lot of question marks about the activities of the court…Despite the four waves of reforms in the field, the minister was unable to dismiss judges with bad reputations,” Gigauri said.
Gigauri says that the reform of creating independent investigative body also failed.
“This is why we, the NGOs, believe that Thea Tsulukiani should not remain on her post and she must be replaced,” she added.
Constitutionalist Vakhushti Menabde says it will be a very wise step from the government, if Tsulukiani does not retake her post when the new cabinet is formed.
“The society has negative attitude towards Tsulukiani, this is why I think that the government should take wise steps and appoint somebody else to this position,” Menabde stressed.
Around two weeks ago, 14 NGOs requested Tsulukiani’s resignation after they were not asked for their involvement in the process of selecting the next Chief Prosecutor.
The organizations say if the government is trying to find a way out of this crisis and make real changes, it is necessary to dismiss the Minister of Justice and conduct an inclusive and transparent process for the selection of a Chief Prosecutor, who resigned in late May amid the large-scale protest rallies regarding the murder case of two teenagers.
The non-governmental sector claimed Tsulukiani’s work is ineffective, as this is the fifth Chief Prosecutor to be replaced during her term. They boycotted the process of selection of a new Chief Prosecutor.
Public Defender Nino Lomjaria stated that if the NGOs do not participate in the process of selecting the Chief Prosecutor, this process will not be trusted by society. She called on the government to gain the trust of the NGOs.
