Culture Minister Tsulukiani welcomes judge discloses “facts of pressure” by US Embassy

Georgia’s Culture Minister, former Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani, welcomed the decision of Tbilisi City Court Lasha Chkhikvadze on Friday to “disclose facts of pressure or attempted pressure” by the US Embassy. 

 

The judge accused the US Embassy of exercising pressure on him for his judgment in the case of the head of the opposition-minded Mtavari channel Nika Gvaramia in May of this year. 

 

The judge claimed that the embassy removed him from its funded programme, which covered the visit to the US, after sentencing Gvaramia to three years and six months to prison for abuse of power. 

 

“In order to ensure the independence of the court in practice, which is properly ensured by the law in our country, first of all, judges and the corps of judges should fight, raising their voice when the achievement [when they are ] attacked.” 

 

“That is why I welcome the disclosure of the facts of pressure or attempted pressure. If any member of the government had dared to do so …” Tsulukiani wrote on social media. 

 

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party MPs have called on the US Embassy to respond to the “grave accusations.” 

 

The opposition suggested that the GD “continued to attack the West and the US.”