Kakha Tsikarishvili: Georgia’s current legal framework ‘no problem’ if decent, unbiased judges present in a court

Kakha Tsikarishvili, a candidate for the membership in the country’s High Council of Justice – an independent body selecting and appointing judges across Georgia and dealing with other legal matters – on Monday said a “clan of judges abusing their power” were the major problem for the country’s judiciary. 

Speaking at the session of the parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, Tsikarishvili stressed the presence of “decent and unbiased” judges would have made the system healthy, noting the existing legal framework was not a problem. 

“If there were not the clan of judges, the [judiciary] system would perform its duties smoothly”, he said and noted he supported the deconcentration of the Council considering the current reality. 

“We are trying to use all mechanisms to get rid of the group of judges. We are trying to ‘invent a bike’ […] or propose some changes to achieve this goal. I believe this is not also good or normal, but we have to do so”, Tsikarishvili said.