Public Defender Calls Upon Parliament to Suspend Election of Supreme Court Judges
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, December 27
Georgian Public Defender has joined the statements of NGOs and several members of the Georgian High Council of Justice (HCJ) and called upon the parliament not to support the list of 10 judges presented by judge members of the HCJ.
Public Defender Nino Lomjaria criticized the selection process of the judges only unlike others, who also grilled the candidates for their past and “biased judiciary.”
"I focus not on the names, but the process itself. I consider that the process of selection and nomination of judicial candidates of the Supreme Court was incompatible with the constitution because according to the constitution, any citizen of our country has the right to occupy public office. In this case, the Supreme Court judges were nominated so that nobody was informed about their selection criteria or why others were not selected, "said Lomjaria.
She stated that since the Supreme Court plays an important role in the protection of human rights and in fact determines the policy of justice in the country, it is of great importance that the judges appointed there have high legitimacy.
"That is why we appeal to the parliament to suspend the process, by not supporting the candidates or through legislative amendments. They should make amendments to the law on general courts to provide more involvement and transparency at the stage of nomination of candidates, as well as during the process of reviewing the candidates in the Parliament”, Lomjaria said.
On 24 December eight HCJ members supported ten judges for the Supreme Court of Georgia without previous warning of non-judge members of the council.
Non-judge members of the council Anna Dolidze and Nazi Janezashvili called the list “shameful” and an “attempt to kill the Georgian judiciary,” as according to them many in the list are affiliated with the United National Movement government and unfair verdicts.
Georgian NGOs have called upon parliament not to approve the list, as based on the new constitution the list must be supported by the majority of lawmakers.
The NGOs also say that the rules must be changed which allows powerful judges make individual decisions.
“The process of appointing judges in the Supreme Court must be suspended until the rules are changed,” 12 NGOs say.
Secretary of HCJ Giorgi Mikautadze, who is in the list of judges sent to parliament, says that all the judges in the list are worthy with years of experience.
He also claims that currently in the Supreme Court there are 11 judges and they cannot cope with hundreds of lawsuits, while there should be 28 judges.
“We needed to draft the list as soon as possible,” Mikautadze said.
The Georgian Dream ruling party members claim that the list will be approved or not after the “detailed studying the biography” of all presented candidates.
The High Council of Justice underwent major changes in 2013.
According to the amendments the High Council of Justice is now composed of 15 members.
Eight members are elected by the self-governing body of judges, five members -by the Parliament of Georgia and one member is appointed by the president.
The HCJ was created to coordinate the judiciary system and to promote the effectiveness and independence of the judiciary.
The main functions of the HCOJ include the organization of qualification exams of judges, selection and appointment of judges of trial and appellate courts, disciplinary proceedings, legislative drafting and analytical work, quality management and relationship with the public.
