Tbilisi City Court judge, Lasha Chkhikvadze, who recently jailed opposition Mtavari TV CEO Nika Gvaramia for 3.5 years lashed out at leading German MEP Michael Gahler of “directly pressuring” Tbilisi Court of Appeals about to consider Mr Gvaramia’s case.
Having voiced strong concern, among others, on politisised justice in Georgia in a recent hearing in the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Gahler also said that the Appeals Court can use the chance to address politisized justice. “It’s never too late to correct mistakes of the past also for the politicized judiciary.” “The case is widely perceived as an attempt to silence a voice critical of the government and the voice of Gvaramia and Mtavari [Arkhi] TV is taken seriously and appreciated by international partners of Georgia be it governments or international organizations,” Gahler said.
Mr Chkihvadze also touched upon on his removal from an earlier study trip to the US right after the judgment widely regarded as political. Chkhikvadze said he met with a US Department of Justice representative Kevin Burke before the trip.
“He asked me about the factual circumstances of the case and told me that the Ambassador is interested in why I decided on a guilty verdict, and especially why I used imprisonment as the punishment.” Mr Chkhikvadze added that soon after the meeting, “my participation was no longer desirable and I was removed from the list of participants.”
Nazi Janezashvili, former civil society-nominated member of the High Council of Justice and campaigner for independent judiciary said Chkhikvadze’s statement signals judges’ involvement in the raging anti American campaign.
"First, I don't believe that he [Chkhikvadze] personally wrote it, but the text circulated in his name already means the involvement of the judge in the campaign against the US, which is a very disturbing story," Janezashvili said.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan was also quick to react stating the allegation of any pressure from the US was “simply not true.”
“All suggestion that the US was interfering in the judicial process here is simply not true. We’ve spent years, helping Georgia build an independent, impartial and transparent judiciary. It is a central pillar of the work that we are doing to help Georgia strengthen its’ rule of law and will continue to work with many partners that we have in Georgia’s judicial system on that very goal, because that is such an important part of healthy democracy to have impartial, transparent and independent judiciary,” she said.
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