Parliament approves four Supreme Court judges amid calls to declare moratorium

The Georgian parliament has approved four Supreme Court judges earlier today despite calls of foreign embassies and local NGOs to pause the process until the country completes a fundamental judiciary reform. 

The new judges are Nino Sandodze, Tea Dzamistarashvili, Genadi Makaridze and Tamar Okropiridze. 

Local NGOs say that Georgian judges are selected by the body, the High Council of Justice, ‘which is biased in its decisions and is being run by a clan of judges.’ 

They say that the High Council of Justice and the whole judiciary system should be reformed first and judges should be selected and appointed only after. 

The EU and US embassies have several times called on the parliament, which approves judges for the Supreme Court, to pause the process.