Government Fails the Creation of an Investigative Commission to Study Corruption in the Judicial System

Had the quorum been satisfied, a minimum of 50 votes were needed to greenlight the formation of the commission, which the backers of the initiative had.

The draft resolution on the creation of the said commission was submitted by opposition deputies in the December of last year, but it was raised for a ballot on April 18th of this year.

While presenting the project, the chairman of the Reform Group, Khatuna Samnidze remarked that, while well-known and far from new, this issue became especially relevant and found renewed focus after the United States imposed sanctions on three acting and one former judge. According to Samnidze, Georgia needs to react accordingly to its ally’s move. 

“We, the opposition, think that the appropriate answer will be to form an investigative commission and within its framework, study all the systemic problems that existed and continue to exist in court. One aspect within the 12-point recommendation guide for obtaining EU candidate status, where our European partners see the need for fundamental reforms, is the judicial system and its independence. 

One of the key aspects of the election campaign of the current government was the detoxification of the judicial system. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Instead, we got influential power groups within the court. Creation of this commission is not just the agenda of the opposition; it is the agenda of the whole country.”

Georgian Dream members stepped out against the initiative of forming a commission. According to Irakli Kadagishvili, the opposition was capitalizing on the defamed images of certain individuals, whose reputations have been run through the dirt and irreversibly damaged in the public eye. 

“This is not new. Before 2012, the names of certain individuals came up during the infamous Girgvliani case. If we think deeply about what was going on behind the closed curtains for the case to go as it went, we end up here, in the parliament, because parliament authorized the laws and created legal grounds that gave the court the room for misconduct it needed to mishandle the case. Let’s not forget that.”

Perversely, a number of Georgian Dream deputies said that the goal of the opposition in creating the investigative commission is to interfere with the impartiality of the court.

“It is completely unacceptable for anyone to be given the opportunity of establishing a malicious practice of turning the court into an instrument of revenge against the government and should be prevented by all means. This will undermine the independence of the judiciary,” stated Mikheil Sarjveladze, the chairman of the Human Rights Committee.

According to the chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, Anri Okhanashvili, Georgian Dream would have deemed the opposition’s intentions neutral and objective if they had demanded the creation of such overseeing committee in connection with the “Rustavi 2 TV case”.

“You want to overshadow the fact that the Strasbourg Court, in relation to all the major cases, which you said were biased and politicized, ruled that the Georgian justice system had reached a fair and objective verdict. Based on all this, you are not objective and your only goal is to sully the sovereignty and independence of the court, which we will not allow,” said Okhanashvili.

Majority leader, Irakli Kobakhidze, accused the opposition of actions against the interests of the state and obstruction in striving towards EU candidacy. According to him, the campaign is built upon a “body of lies”.

“The truth is that the situation in the judicial system not only improved dramatically but all systemic issues have been completely eliminated. A false campaign being carried out against the court inarguably goes against the European integration process. When you are initiating a draft resolution aimed at supercharging this campaign, you are once again trying to create artificial obstacles on the way to receiving the candidacy. This is not your mistake, misdemeanor, or an overshot; this is your conscious anti-state move.

You defy the state by trying to fuel a campaign of deception against the judiciary. Of course, it’s unacceptable and no one will allow the restoration of the National Movement’s control over the justice system. We will not allow the autonomy of specific judges to be tampered with. We will firmly stand out ground.

We, the political authorities, can only do two things in relation to the judicial system: one is to pass laws, to develop an appropriate legal framework, and the other is to protect the independence of the judiciary. Based on the second part, in the interest of protecting the independence of the judiciary, we can offer you a specific act – an act of support for the independence of the judiciary. This is one of the cornerstones of our constitutional framework which must be respected and this is our act of solidarity for the Georgian judiciary system. We, the parliamentary majority, have made the decision not to register for the session,” said Kobakhidze.

On April 5, the US State Department sanctioned Tbilisi Court of Appeal Chairman Mikheil Chinchaladze, Tbilisi Court of Appeal Deputy Chairman Irakli Shengelia, member of the Supreme Council of Justice and lifelong judge of Tbilisi Court of Appeal Levan Murusidze. In addition, Valerian Tsertsvadze, chairman of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal from 2012-2017, was among those sanctioned. According to the State Department, these persons abused their entrusted positions as court chairpersons and members of the Supreme Council of Justice, thus harming the rule of law and the public's trust in the Georgian judicial system. Mikheil Chinchaladze, Irakli Shengelia, Levan Murusidze, and Valerian Tsertsvadze, as well as their immediate family members, will no longer be able to enter the US territory.