Day: May 5, 2026

The High Council of Justice of Georgia (HCoJ), the body overseeing the judiciary, finalized applications for lifetime appointments to the country’s Supreme Court on May 4 and will now submit six nominees to the country’s disputed parliament for confirmation. All nominees are sitting judges currently serving in lower courts.

The nominees are Tamar Alania, Dimitri Gvritishvili, Giorgi Goginashvili, Liana Kazhashvili, Davit Mamiseishvili, and Salome Samkharadze.

Dimitri Gvritishvili, 45, currently chairs the Administrative Cases Chamber of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal, a position he has held since July 2025. He has been a member of the High Council of Justice since his election by the Conference of Judges in 2022. Critics have long identified Gvritishvili as a member of the so-called “judicial clan,” an informal network accused of wielding disproportionate influence over Georgia’s judiciary.

Tamar Alania, 49, has served as a judge at the Tbilisi Court of Appeals since 2006 and received lifetime judicial tenure in 2017. Since August 2019, she has served as Executive Director of the Board of the Georgian Women Judges Association.

Both Gvritishvili and Alania were candidates for Supreme Court appointments as early as 2018, when their prospective nominations triggered a major rift within the ruling Georgian Dream party. Then-MP Eka Beselia left the Georgian Dream party, having accused then-Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze, among others, of lobbying for nominees she argued had “served Mikheil Saakashvili’s oppressive regime.”

Giorgi Goginashvili, 52, served as a judge at Tbilisi City Court from 2006 to 2016 before moving to the Tbilisi Court of Appeals, where he currently serves in the Investigative Panel for a lifetime tenure. He is known for ordering pre-trial detention in 2014 for former Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava.

Liana Kazhashvili, 39, has served on the Civil Cases Panel of Tbilisi City Court since 2021 and received lifetime tenure in 2024. She recently presided over the defamation case brought by imprisoned journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli against Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze over his televised remarks, and terminated the lawsuit without examining the merits of the case.

Davit Mamiseishvili, 47, has served as a judge across multiple chambers of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals since 2021, including the Criminal Cases Chamber, the Investigative Panel, and, since November 2025, the Civil Cases Chamber.

Salome Samkharadze, 35, has served on the Administrative Cases Panel of Tbilisi City Court since 2021 and received lifetime tenure in 2024.

Georgia’s judicial system has seen longstanding criticism from civil society groups and opposition figures, who accuse an influential group of senior judges, often called the “judicial clan,” of dominating appointments and decision-making in the interests of the ruling party. The issue has also become one of the key obstacles on Georgia’s EU integration path over the years.

In 2023, the United States’ State Department sanctioned several senior and former Georgian judges, citing abuse of office and “undermining the rule of law and the public’s faith in Georgia’s judicial system.”

Also Read:

• 13/05/2025 – Op-ed | Can the Georgian judiciary be saved?
• 19/03/2025 – Kavelashvili Replaces Zurabishvili’s Appointee to the High Council of Justice
• 11/03/2024 – Supreme Court Denounces Proposed ‘Vetting’ as Threat to Judicial Independence

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