U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said he had credible information, including from “open sources,” that high-ranking judges in Georgia who had been sanctioned were involved in corruption.
On March 6, Georgian Foreign Minister Ilya Darchiashvili wrote a letter to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken saying that the State Department’s decision to sanction the four judges is incomprehensible and unacceptable and calls on the US to provide evidence or reconsider.
“Otherwise, Georgia and the Georgian people will perceive this as pressure on an independent court of a sovereign state and gross interference in its activities, which will damage the long-standing friendly relations between Georgia and the United States,” the letter says.
Patel said “that corrupt activities undermine the rule of law and democratic processes in Georgia”, and public confidence in democratic institutions and officials:
“From the very beginning, the American people sided with the Georgian people in solidarity and their desire to be a free and sovereign country within its internationally recognized borders.
Over the past 30 years, we have become strategic partners. We are working together on a common vision for Georgia to be fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic family.”
Clarifying the sanctions decision, Vedant Patel said the US has credible information that these individuals were involved in serious corruption in their current and past judicial positions:
“As we said, we have received information from various sources, including public ones, and we have credible information to believe that there has been a significant involvement in corruption,” Patel said.
The US State Department imposed sanctions on judges Mikhail Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia and Valerian Tsertsvadze, as well as their family members, and banned them from entering the US “due to significant corrupt activities”, as a statement by Antony Blinken reads.
Independent experts and human rights activists have noted for years that Levan Murusidze and Mikhail Chinchaladze lead a powerful “clan” of judges that is blocking the reforms needed to strengthen ties between Georgia and the EU. Both judges are associated with an influential body – the High Council of Justice. It is the main supervisory body of the country’s judiciary.
The judges are also believed to be linked to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest man in Georgia, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party and informal ruler of the country.
Murusidze was also distinguished by his loyalty to the previous government – he was a judge in the high-profile case of Sandro Girgvliani during the reign of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement party. Murusudze’s name is also associated with the commutation of sentences for those accused in the murder of Sandro Girgvliani.
A clause on the improvement of the judiciary was also included in the Charles Michel agreement of 19 April. Later, the US Ambassador also made statements several times. However, the government did not stop the process and continued to appoint life judges to the Supreme Court.
On October 31, the conference of judges elected two new members of the High Council of Justice: Paata Silagadze and Giorgi Goginashvili. It is believed that Silagadze and Goginashvili are members of the so-called judicial “clan” and both of them are appointed for life as judges of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal.
