The Parliament Elects 3 Non-Judge Members for the High Council of Justice

Tristan Benashvili is a law expert and was nominated as a candidate for membership of the High Council of Justice by an Eastern European University and the Georgian Copyright Association, while Zurab Guraspashvili is the head of the investigative division of the General Inspection Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The wife of the latter, Tamar Bliadze, is an assistant judge at the Tbilisi Court of Appeals. Guraspashvili was nominated as a candidate by the Civil Society Development Centre and Social Programming Foundation. Giorgi Gzobava is a lawyer and a member of the Georgian Bar Association. He was nominated as a candidate for membership of the High Council by the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association and the Association of Free Development and Rights Protection.

The Parliament elects 5 non-judge members of the High Council of Justice with a majority support of no less than three-fifth (90 deputies) of all members. Georgian Dream and their satellite - People's Party share 84 votes, and the European Socialists political group, which often backs Georgian Dream’s initiatives, has 4. This means some opposition MPs must have also voted for the candidates.

Lelo Party member Ana Natsvlishvili assumes that a few members of the opposition struck a secret deal with the Georgian Dream and sold their vote so that the ruling party could recruit allies to the High Council and keep shielding the so-dubbed “court clan”.

“Electing the members of the High Council of Justice is one of the most important aspects of EU recommendations, and requires a consensus. Otherwise, it will not be considered fulfilled. This is no consensus, this is a secret deal Georgian Dream struck with a few opposition members,” said Ana Natsvlishvili after leaving the meeting hall in protest together with most of the opposition.

According to the representatives of the United National Movement, deputies of their faction - Nika Machutadze, Bachuki Kardava, and Nato and Rostom Chkheidze, also supported the members of the High Council of Justice.

Nongovernmental organizations chimed in with their assessment of the events at the parliament. According to the members of the Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary, the ruling party is doing everything in its power to strengthen the rule of the court clan within the justice system.

“It is very disappointing that by supporting these candidates, certain opposition parties helped Georgian Dream enact these malicious decisions that go against the interests of the society and justice. Our coalition observed the competition and interviews with the candidates. One thing’s clear – these candidates are not selected for the council for their critical stance, quite the contrary, they are chosen based on loyalty. Therefore, we do not expect these workforce permutations to have any meaningful effect in the operation of the High Council in terms of resolving malicious practices and deep-rooted issues,” stated Guram Imnadze, coordinator of the Justice Program of the Social Justice Center.

At today’s plenary session, 29 candidates were voted for membership of the Higher Council of Justice. The Chairman of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, explained that only the candidates who showed the highest results on the first voting will participate in the second one to fill the remaining two vacant seats, namely, Rusudan Kvinikadze (89 votes), Goga Kikilashvili (89 votes), Levan Nemsadze (88 votes) and Nino Nishnianidze (87 votes).

The High Council of Justice consists of 15 members. Eight are elected by the self-governance body of common courts judges - the Conference of Judges, five - by the Parliament, and one is appointed by the President. The 15th member is the Chairman of the Supreme Court, who also chairs the Supreme Council of Justice.