The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ilia Darchiashvili, addresses the United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken with a letter.
Ilia Darchiashvili points out, that the decision of the US State Department on sanctioning judges, which was made public without presenting any evidence, is completely incomprehensible and unacceptable.
"On behalf of the Georgian people and the Government of Georgia, we confirm our deep respect and commitment to the strategic partnership between Georgia and the United States of America. As we learned, the US State Department made a decision regarding the sanctioning of three active and one former judge of the independent Georgian judicial system.
First of all, I would like to remind you of the most difficult legacy that Georgian Dream had to face in the judicial system in 2012, when it came to power. The reality was the worst: the court was turned into a division of the prosecutor's office and another link in the repressive machine of the authoritarian regime, the rate of guilty verdicts exceeded 99 percent, 300,000 citizens were tried, elite corruption included both the court and other areas, the government committed systemic crimes. Under the conditions of an unjust and repressive judicial system, the number of prisoners reached 25 thousand in prisons, where the systematic practice of torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners was introduced. As a result, the death rate of prisoners was unprecedentedly high. After Georgian Dream came to power, the number of prisoners decreased by 2.5 times, and the death rate decreased by 10 times. In addition, after Georgian Dream came to power, the rate of pre-trial detention by the courts decreased three times, the rate of administrative detention decreased three times, the rate of approval of requests for investigative actions was halved, the rate of bail decreased twenty times, the rate of fines decreased five times, etc.
Under the conditions of the previous government and its judicial system, the Georgian people could not find justice in Georgia and were forced to turn to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2004-2012, 5416 complaints of Georgian citizens were submitted to the Strasbourg court. For comparison, in 2013-2022, this figure was only 1132. In 2009-2012, the European Court considered about 4,000 complaints filed against Georgia. According to the data of 2023, only 147 complaints filed against Georgia are considered in the Strasbourg Court, which is the best indicator of Georgia during its membership in the Council of Europe.
It should be noted that during the period of the previous government, the main creators and architects of the court's criminal system - Mikheil Saakashvili and Zurab Adeishvili were not sanctioned by any country, and moreover, unfortunately, they enjoyed specific guarantees of inviolability or still enjoy it.
The sharp decrease in appeals in the Strasbourg court, as well as the above statistics, is a clear proof that the systemic problems in the judicial system have been eliminated after 2012, which is the result of the relevant political will and the four waves of fundamental judicial reform carried out by the Georgian Dream government. Citizens of Georgia can effectively protect their rights within the country today. The justice system has become effective and today it provides an effective opportunity to protect rights.
The government has repeatedly appealed to critics of Georgia's current judicial system to present specific court cases that, in their opinion, were decided unfairly. However, critics have so far failed to present any such case. A clear example of the bias of critics of the judicial system is the decision of the Strasbourg court regarding the case of "Rustavi 2" TV station. The decision proves that, on the contrary, pressure was exerted on the court by Nika Gvaramia, the general director of "Rustavi 2" at that time. In the decision, it is mentioned that "groundless media attacks made by the General Director of Rustavi 2" against the judge of the case can be considered as an inappropriate attempt to influence the judge's decision, and the said attacks, in general, can contribute to undermining the authority of the judiciary." We would like to remind you that representatives of opposition parties and non-governmental organizations, media outlets owned by the opposition, former president, former public defender, as well as individual representatives of the diplomatic corps were actively involved in the attempt to damage the reputation of the court in connection with the "Rustavi 2" case.
The Georgian court is perceived by the population and international studies as one of the most advanced. According to the "IPSOS FRANCE" survey ("Assessment of Judicial Reforms in Georgia"), 55% of the population of Georgia think that the court is fair, 52% think that the court is reliable and 51% think that the court is independent. As a result of the government's ten-year work and reforms, Georgia ranks high in international rankings. In the 2022 index of the rule of law of the "World Justice Project", Georgia ranks first in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index of 2022, Georgia is the leader in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, for the first time in the history of the index, it is in the top 20 in Europe and ahead of 11 EU member states.
At the same time, work on judicial reform continues with the Venice Commission to further strengthen the independence and transparency of the judiciary and to make the legislation even more complete.
Therefore, taking into account this reality, the decision of the US State Department to sanction judges, which was made public without presenting any evidence, is completely incomprehensible and unacceptable. We hope that the State Department will provide relevant evidence or reconsider its decision. Otherwise, the state of Georgia and the Georgian people perceive this as pressure on the independent court of the sovereign state and gross interference in its activities, which will damage the long-term friendly relations between Georgia and the USA," the Minister wrote.
