MP Beselia returns to Legal Affairs Committee after resignation as committee head.
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, March 12
MP Eka Beselia, who resigned as the head of Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee in December, will return as the member of the committee despite the fact she has controversies with current chair of the committee Anri Okhanashvili.
Beselia, who later left the ruling party as she disliked the party’s attitude to judges, will be a member of the committee as an independent MP.
The quota of an independent MP became vacant after Nato Chkheidze left the committee.
Beselia lost the membership of the Legal Issues Committee after leaving the Georgian Dream faction.
Beselia claimed on 27 December 2018 that her decision to resign as the committee head was related to “hasty and unacceptable” process of lifetime appointment of judges with “controversial past” to the Supreme Court of Georgia.
“With my decision, the process, which I believe is very harmful, is temporarily suspended” Beselia stated regarding the nomination of 10 judges for the Supreme Court of Georgia who should be confirmed by parliament.
She also said that she made the decision only after his deputy Vano Zardiashvili wrote a note for resignation.
Beselia did not hide her negative attitude towards Zardiashvili and said: “I would not have left the Legal Committee in his hands.”
Beselia says that the High Council of Justice (HCJ), an independent body which is responsible for selection and appointment of judges, must withdraw the list of judges it offered the parliament and the selection process of judges for the Supreme Court should be newly regulated.
She said that several judges on the list are linked with politically grounded cases and unfair verdicts, citing the case of her son and brother and several of her former teammates.
Shortly after the resignation, a personal video of hers was leaked and went viral, leading to the detaining of 16 people.
However, it still remains unclear who leaked the video.
Beselia linked the “dirty campaign” to her attitude towards the judges.
Beselia says that she will create a movement to make the Georgian court free from biased judges.
Head of the ruling party political council Bidzina Ivanishvili and Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhizde claimed that Beselia’s resignation had nothing to do with the judges and it was agreed in the summit of 2018 for her to resign as the committee head.
