Ruling Party Faction Leader Claims Dismissal of GD MPs Not Discussed
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, January 10
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream faction in parliament, Mamuka Mdinaradze, claims that the party has not discussed the dismissal of its two members, Eka Beselia and Gedevan Popkhadze, during the party assembly on Tuesday.
Mdinaradze said that the party “always tries to settle problems inside the team,” without much noise.
Beselia, who quit the post of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee at the end of December as she says because of the list of “biased judges” for the Supreme Court, and Popkhadze, who was withdrawn from the committee by the decision of his party, did not participate in the meeting.
Beselia, who openly accused Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze for lobbying the list presented by the High Council of Justice to parliament for approval, claims that “she is never afraid of any developments around her.”
She told the media that it was Kobakhidze who criticized her publicly after her decision to quit and “tasked” some other lawmakers to also attack her and say that her resignation “had nothing to do with the judges.”
Mdinaradze stated that a larger-scale party assembly will take place until the spring session, where all painful issues will be discussed.
He reiterated that the parliament postponed the discussion of the list of judges until the spring session to “carefully study the past and professional skills of each judge nominated for the Supreme Court,” despite the fact there are “only ten judges at present in the Supreme Court instead of 28, which creates problems for judiciary.”
The High Council of Justice, a body responsible for the appointment of judges, nominated the list of 10 judges for the Supreme Court of Georgia without previous consultations on 24 December.
The list was criticized by NGOs, two non-judge members of the council and Vice Parliament Speaker Tamar Chugoshvili from the ruling party, stating that the list included several judges who were linked with politically motivated cases and biased judiciary.
The NGOs have asked parliament to withdraw the list and refine the procedures for selection of judges.
Mdinaradze says that the refining of the procedure is possible, while the withdrawal of the list is up to the High Council of Justice and not the parliament.
