“Georgian Dream” Continues to Protect the Interests of the Clan – Coalition Statement

The “Georgian Dream” deliberately prevented the creation of a temporary investigative commission in the Parliament twice, which was supposed to study corruption and other violations in the judicial system. On April 18, fifty opposition MPs registered for the session. This was enough to create a commission. However, the “Georgian Dream” deputies did not register for voting, so a quorum (76 MPs) was not formed. The same happened at the April 19 session. Irakli Kobakhidze, the leader of the majority, assessed this as an “act of solidarity” towards the judges.

The so-called act of solidarity is an expression of support for the influential group in the judiciary – the Clan. At the same time, this decision means taking political responsibility for the corrupt deals made by influential judges in the justice system. Local and international organizations have been discussing the judiciary’s problems for years. On April 5, the US Department of State sanctioned Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia, Valerian Tsertsvadze, and their family members and banned them from entering the United States of America due to their involvement in significant corrupt activities.

We believe that the parliamentary majority abuses the procedures by refusing to go through registration to prevent the opposition from creating a temporary investigative commission. With this type of action, the “Georgian Dream”, with the support of the judicial Clan, also violates the supreme law of the country, because it makes the Constitutional provision regarding the creation of a temporary investigative commission without the involvement of the parliamentary majority meaningless.