The Georgian Dream parliamentary majority has nominated Eva Gotsiridze as a candidate for judge for the Constitutional Court. The decision has already been registered by the bureau; the candidacy has yet to be discussed by the Legal Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia.
Gotsiridze stated on November 29 regarding her candidacy that she “agreed to take this position right away. This is a very honorable position and I think that with my knowledge and experience I will be able to meet the duties, if chosen.”
If chosen, Gotsiridze will replace Judge Lali Papiashvili in the Constitutional Court.
Gotsiridze was a member of the High Council of Justice of Georgia from 2013-2017. The Government of Georgia nominated Gotsiridze earlier this year for Georgia’s seat for a judge at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, however Gotsiridze’s candidacy was rejected by the Strasbourg court together with the list of two other candidates.
Gotsiridze said of her rejected candidacy for the ECHR that “unimaginable mobilization was organized against my candidacy.”
Gotsiridze was vocal concerning the highly political 2015-2017 Rustavi 2 TV ownership case, and spoke in defence of presiding Judge Tamaz Utmelidze, who had ruled to transfer ownership of the TV station to its previous owners.
Gotsiridze had said in context of the controversial case that “freedom of expression can be limited in defence of the judiciary. “
“It is unimaginable, how Tamaz Urtmelidze’s ruling has to do anything with intruding in [the station’s] editorial policy,” she said.
In 2016, Gotsiridze tried to justify the attempted take-over of the Rustavi 2 TV company: