UK imposes financial sanctions on two members of group locally known as Georgia’s ‘Clan of Judges’

The UK has imposed financial sanctions on two Georgian judges — Levan Murusidze and Mikheil Chinchaladze — who have previously been accused of being closely allied with the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Murusidze is a judge of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals and a member of the High Council of Justice of Georgia (HCOJ), while Chinchaladze is the Chair of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals.

According to the statement, a total of 13 entries were added to the sanctions registry, subjecting them to an asset freeze. In other words, all accounts or other funds and economic resources based in the UK must be frozen, and UK citizens must ‘refrain from dealing with the funds or economic resources or making them available directly or indirectly to or for the benefit of designated persons’ unless a specific exception has been licensed.

In  Wednesday’s statement, the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) claimed that Chinchaladze and Murusidze are or have been ‘involved in serious corruption by engaging in serious corruption’.

According to the OFSI, both judges ‘received a financial advantage as a reward’ for ‘improperly performing’ their public functions, namely that they improperly asserted their influence in the Tbilisi Court of Appeals to ‘ensure that judicial appointments and decisions favoured the incumbent Georgian Dream party’.

Chinchaladze and Murusidze both received life tenure in the Tbilisi Court of Appeals under Georgian Dream. Both have also been accused of possessing undisclosed wealth of unknown origin.

In April 2023, a number of Georgian judges, including Chinchaladze and Murusidze, were accused by the US State Department of ‘involvement in significant corruption’ and ‘undermining the rule of law’.

The judges and their immediate family members were subsequently banned from entering the US.

These sanctioned individuals were previously accused of being closely allied with the ruling Georgian Dream party, and of abusing their positions as members of the HCOJ.

The HCOJ is an independent agency responsible for overseeing the judiciary that has faced significant domestic criticism, including allegations that it is run by a ‘clan’ of judges allied with the government and has deliberately stalled judicial reforms.

In response to the criticism, the HCOJ in 2021 accused the US and EU of interfering in Georgia’s judicial independence.

US sanctions senior Georgian judges for ‘undermining rule of law’

The US has imposed sanctions on three current and one former judge alleged to be members of a ruling-party-associated ‘clan’ in Georgia’s judicial system. On Wednesday, the US State Department accused judges Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, and Irakli Shengelia, and one former judge, Valeria…

OC MediaShota Kincha

Local watchdogs, and in the past, members of the ruling party, have long warned of the presence of the clan, dating back to the previous government under the United National Movement (UNM).

On Tuesday, Georgia’s fifth President Salome Zourabichvili provided evidence on ‘Russian disinformation’ during a Q&A hearing of the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

In her testimony, given virtually over Zoom, Zourabichvili highlighted that currently in Georgia, ‘every day brings new repressive laws’, citing the restrictive media and civil society legislation passed in parliament that same day, noting that ‘practically everybody is in one way or another under the repressive laws’.

Zourabichvili testifies in UK Parliament about the impact of ‘Russian disinformation’ on Georgia

Georgia’s fifth President Salome Zourabichvili warned that Georgia was at risk of becoming a grey zone where Russians could bypass Western sanctions.

OC MediaXandie (Alexandra) Kuenning