Tea Tsulukiani’s bill to be publicized soon
Vakho Beridze, kvirispalitra.ge
Apparently, after 3 years being in Government, “Georgian Dream” is starting to review unlawful judgments. Minister of Justice has confirmed the information that the bill, which was drafted through consultation with the Prosecutor’s Office and officials of the Supreme Court, is ready. The content of the bill is not disclosed and, of course, it is not known what kind of mechanism are they talking about, however, Tea Tsulukiani promises that the bill will be publicized soon.
“We have started work on the issue as soon as the chairperson of the Supreme Court was replaced. I had consultations with the Prosecutor’s Office and Nino Gvenetadze (Supreme Court Chairwoman). We have prepared the bill which will support to overview the judgments, “_ stated Tea Tsulukiani.
Head of NGO Human Rights Center Aleko Tskitishvili said at this stage there are two initiatives about reviewing the judgments: the first belongs to the public defender, who requires to create mechanism for reviewing judgments in the Constitutional Court; the author of the second initiative is Nino Gvenetadze. She suggests to create a special chamber in the Supreme Court.
Aleko Tskitishvili: The Ministry of Justice has not communicated about this fact with non-governmental sector, or at least with our organization. We are already used with the fact that time after time, government officials remind us about their pre-election promises. According to their promises an effective mechanism for the identification of miscarriages of justice should have been created . But as soon as “Georgian Dream” came in the government, Tea Tsulukiani announced that establishment of the commission , which would work on identification of miscarriages of justice, has been delayed for unclear period of time.
After the murder of Iuri Vazagashvili, in order to secure their rating,not lose the rating, the Government hastily created a special department in the prosecutor’s office, which should have investigated crimes committed by the law enforcement bodies , but so far we cannot see any tangible results from this department. A lot of people wait when the real mechanism will be created, interests of many of those people are protected by our organization. I am going to remind you only two cases: case of Vakhtang Maisaia and so called Kintsvisi Case have not been reviewed yet.
-However, Tsulukiani says that the bill which will support reviewing the judgments is already drafted…
-I am not familiar with this bill, but I know that there are some initiatives. For example, the initiative of the Public Defender aims to increase authority of the Constitutional Court, to eradicate miscarriages of justice.. But this initiative has no support from the Government.
- Does the Constitutional Court have enough resources and tools to work on this?
- For this moment they do not. If the Parliament changes the Law on Constitutional Court and increases its authority, it will become possible, because in other situation constitutional rights of people are violated. .
-But, as it appears, Tsulukiani’s bill considers to create this type of mechanism in the Supreme Court, because Nino Gvenetadze is actively involved in this process.
-This idea belongs to Nino Gvenetadze. I support both initiatives. The important thing is that the Government supports at least one of the initiatives. Gvenetadze’s initiative means to create a separate chamber with newly elected judges.
- Will these judges be those who were recently presented by the President?
-The subject is not that simple, because in this case , questions related to impartiality might arise, because the candidates presented by the President are going to be approved by the Majority of Parliament,
- Then how a new chamber should be staffed?
-To eliminate political influence, it is possible that they elect new Judges in a different manner. For example there is a rule of staffing the Board of Public Broadcaster, where the candidates are presented by the Parliament as a majority, as well as by Minority and Public Defender. President might have his quota as well. I think this will be the best solution.