Georgian Parliament official says foreign officials seeking to influence Georgia’s judiciary

Archil Gorduladze, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs, on Friday criticised statements by foreign officials regarding proceedings before Georgia’s Constitutional Court on a lawsuit seeking to ban five opposition parties, accusing external forces of attempting to protect their agents in the country.

Gorduladze said the statements amounted to an attempt to pressure the independent judiciary, adding that similar efforts had failed in the past and would not succeed in the future.

He also said the ruling team would continue to speak out against what he described as European bureaucrats undermining the fundamental principles upon which the Council of Europe and the European Union were founded.

“Those behind various elected and unelected bureaucrats abroad are trying to protect their agents. These officials are merely conveying their message. Otherwise, other agents would have no incentive to obey their handlers”, Gorduladze said.

“It is a disaster when the Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly campaigns against the judiciary. When we talk about the erosion of the rule of law, we mean, among other things, that everyone must respect our country’s Constitution, legislation and internationally recognized standards. One of the fundamental principles is the right to apply to a court”, Gorduladze noted.

“Now this official is telling us that we should not exercise a right guaranteed and enshrined in our Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights”, he added.

Gorduladze described the statements as another attempt to exert pressure on Georgia’s independent judiciary, saying similar incidents had occurred repeatedly over the years.

“Whether through so-called ambassadors or various foreign officials, there have been repeated attempts to influence the judiciary through statements concerning criminal and administrative cases. They have even gone so far as to have ambassadors sit in courtrooms during proceedings”, he said.

“Such attempts to exert pressure have not worked in the past and will not work in the future. At the same time, we will always speak out against efforts to undermine the fundamental principles upon which the Council of Europe and the European Union were founded. Their bureaucracy is now trampling on those very principles”, Gorduladze concluded.