Irakli Shotadze at a meeting with GD ruling coalition MPs in Parliament chamber in Kutaisi on November 26; earlier on the same day that he was grilled by opposition lawmakers from UNM and Free Democrats parties. He was confirmed by Parliament as new chief prosecutor on November 27. Photo: Georgian Parliament
Irakli Shotadze, 32, has been confirmed by the Parliament as new chief prosecutor of Georgia for a non-renewable six-year term.
Shotadze, who served as first deputy chief prosecutor since November 2013, was approved with 82 votes to 15 on November 27.
Shotadze, who is the fourth chief prosecutor since the Georgian Dream (GD) coalition came into government in late 2012, had full backing of the GD parliamentary majority group.
Opposition MPs from the UNM and Free Democrats parties were against of Shotadze’s nomination, saying that he would not provide for de-politicization of the prosecutor’s office.
The vote was preceded by parliamentary hearings on November 26-27. His nomination was heard at a joint session of legal affairs and human rights committees, which was followed by Shotadze’s meeting with lawmakers from Free Democrats party and then he was grilled by UNM MPs on November 26.
Some lawmakers from UNM party, which was far more vocal in its criticism of Shotadze’s nomination then MPs from FD party, were calling him ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili’s “puppet”.
The parliamentary hearings and voting were a result of new law on prosecutor’s office, adopted in September, introducing new rule of selecting and electing chief prosecutor.
Previously chief prosecutor was appointed by the PM and before that by the President. A candidate for chief prosecutor required parliament’s approval till 2008, when the post became subordinated fully to the executive branch after legislative amendments.
During the parliamentary hearings Shotadze told lawmakers that turning the prosecutor’s office into “much more transparent and independent” body would be his main priority.
Shotadze was appointed as first deputy of chief prosecutor in November, 2013. He joined the prosecutor’s office in 2006 and worked as a prosecutor till 2010 before moving to the Finance Ministry’s Investigative Service. Before becoming deputy chief prosecutor, he served as chief of the investigative department of the Finance Ministry’s Investigative Service till November, 2013.
Shotadze has replaced Giorgi Badashvili as chief prosecutor, who was appointed on the post in January, 2014 after his predecessor was forced to resign following a scandal over his past criminal conviction in Germany.
Shotadze told lawmakers that prosecutors have to operate in a “completely new reality” after the GD coalition came into power. He said previously it was “guaranteed” for prosecution to win cases as the executive branch was exerting control over the judiciary when the UNM party was in power. But, he continued, this situation is now completely changed and it requires much more professionalism from prosecutors to prove their cases in court as “standards are now much higher” in the condition when the judiciary is independent.
He said that along with increase of professionals, one of the main goals should be to encourage prosecutors’ independence.
“We do not need a prosecutor who is blindly obedient to superiors’ instructions; our goal is to have independent, responsible, professional prosecutors,” Shotadze said.
He said he is in favor of ongoing trend of “liberalisation” of the criminal justice, but also noted that “golden mean” should be kept in order not to deprive law enforcement agencies of tools required for efficient fight against crime.
During the hearings some lawmakers from the GD ruling coalition were complaining about what they called slow pace of “restoration of justice” and investigations into alleged crimes committed when UNM was in power. The opposition UNM lawmakers said that what GD calls “restoration of justice” is in fact “retribution” against former government officials who are now in opposition.
Shotadze said that “continuation and intensification of restoration of justice” will be among his priorities. He said that the prosecutor’s office is facing burdensome and time-consuming task of looking into thousands of complaints of citizens related to violation of their rights under the previous administration. He said that the prosecutor’s office had to handle about 700 complaints over alleged property seizures and about 4,000 complaints involving allegations of exceeding authority with violence by former officials.
He said that slow pace of investigations, which he partly attributed to lack of resources, contributes to lack of public confidence towards the prosecutor’s office.
At a committee hearing GD MP from the Republican Party Vakhtang Khmaladze, who chairs parliamentary committee on legal affairs, told Shotadze that the prosecutor’s office should “put an end to the practice when our questions remain either unanswered or answered with lack of any substance.” MP Khmaladze expressed hope that increase of accountability of prosecutor’s office before the Parliament, envisaged by the new law, will help to address this problem.
Shotadze also said that one of the challenges facing the prosecutor’s office is to “dispel doubts” among Georgia’s western partners about criminal investigations against former government officials being politically motivated.
“In fact there is no political motivation behind those cases; those investigations and prosecutions represent reaction to specific crimes, which were committed. It is the duty of prosecutor’s office to react on those cases,” Shotadze said.
One of the issues over which Shotadze faced intense questioning from the UNM opposition lawmakers was related to differentiated treatment by the prosecutor’s office of cases of attacks perpetrated against lawmakers and members of UNM on the one hand and against GD MP on the other hand.
Three activists from UNM-affiliated group are in pre-trial detention since early October after spat with GD lawmaker Davit Lortkipanidze in the entrance of the Parliament building in Kutaisi. But perpetrators in attacks against UNM’s Zurab Tchiaberashvili in May, 2014, and UNM MPs Chiora Taktakishvili and Giorgi Gviniashvili in 2013 and 2015, respectively, got away without imprisonment.
When asked repeatedly by UNM MPs whether differentiated treatment of these cases by the prosecutor’s office represented a clear example of selective justice, Shotadze disagreed and defended prosecutors’ handling of those cases. He said that each case should be treated based on specific circumstances, including such as accused individuals’ willingness or reluctance to cooperate with the investigation.
He was also questioned about his connections to former chief prosecutor Otar Partskhaladze, who held the post for less than two months as he had to resign after UNM exposed that he had criminal record. Even after quitting the post, UNM was alleging that Partskhaladze remained informally in charge of prosecutor’s office on behalf of ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili. During the hearing UNM MP Givi Targamadze was referring to Irakli Shotadze as ‘Otar’ – the first name of Partskhaladze – to demonstrate that he deemed Shotadze as Partskhaladze’s protégé. When asked if he deemed scandal over Partskhaladze’s criminal record as “shame” for prosecutor’s office, Shotadze responded that Partskhaladze was his “friend” and would not comment on that.
He denied that Ivanishvili was involved with the matters related to prosecutor’s office and said that he had met the ex-PM only for several times at public events.
A senior UNM MP Giorgi Gabashvili said during the hearings that Shotadze was “an executor of political orders” of Ivanishvili. He said that nothing was going to change with Shotadze’s appointment as the GD coalition will continue to use prosecutor’s office for its political purposes.
During the parliamentary debates on November 27, some GD lawmakers were saying that listening to UNM’s “groundless”, “absurd” and “hysterical” allegations made them even more convinced that their decision to support Shotadze’s nomination was the right one.
MP from the Free Democrats, Irakli Chikovani, told Shotadze during the hearings on November 26 that his party was not supporting his nomination because the legislative amendments, introducing new rules for selecting and electing chief prosecutor, was failing to provide de-politicization of the prosecutor’s office. He, however, also said that FD party was ready for “constructive cooperation” with him.
FD MP Chikovani also told Shotadze: “There are too many question marks about the work of prosecutor’s office in a period during which you were deputy chief prosecutor, so Free Democrats will not support your nomination. But at the same time the Free Democrats will make full use of those levers envisaged by the legislation in terms of parliamentary oversight of the prosecutor’s office and we will actively scrutinize your work.”
Congratulating on his election as new chief prosecutor, Parliament Speaker Davit Usupashvili told Shotadze after the vote: “I wish you success; we will be often meeting here in the Parliament chamber over those specific issues, which were addressed [during the hearings] be it legislation or prosecutor’s office further reforms.”
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