US puts sanctions on four Georgian judges over ‘significant corruption’

Four current and former judges in Georgia have been put on a US sanctions list amid a wave of protests in Tbilisi against the failure of Georgian courts to release the former president Mikheil Saakashvili, a prominent Kremlin critic, from jail.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has accused the men – who have chaired courts and sat on the Georgia’s high council of justice, which oversees the judiciary – of “significant corruption”. They deny the accusations.

The streets of the Georgian capital have been flooded with protesters in recent weeks who accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of being under the sway of Moscow, jailing political opponents such as Saakashvili and silencing independent media.

Saakashvili, a pro-western politician who claims to be dying in jail after being beaten and poisoned, served two terms between 2004 and 2013 and was jailed in 2021 for abuse of power, a conviction that has been condemned by activists as politically motivated.

The court of appeal said in February that he had no legal basis to challenge his six-year sentence.

Blinken said in a statement that the four men put on the US sanctions list – Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia, and Valerian Tsertsvadze – had abused their positions by undermining the public’s faith in Georgia’s judicial system, although he did not make mention of Saakashvili’s case.

“The United States continues to stand with all Georgians in support of democracy and the rule of law and will continue to promote accountability for those who abuse public power for personal gain,” Blinken said. “We stand with all judges who have the integrity and courage to act impartially and independently.”

David Kezerashvili, a former Georgian defence minister who moved to London in 2012 after the current governing party accused him of embezzling $5.2m (£4.2m) in state funds, called on European governments to apply further pressure to release Saakashvili.

“The US state department’s decision to sanction four of Georgia’s most senior judges comes at a time when street protests against the country’s ruling elite are already gathering pace,” he said.

“The imprisonment of Mikheil Saakashvili, in particular, is seen by many as an appalling abuse of power which raises troubling questions about the extent of Russian influence in Tbilisi. There can be little doubt that Moscow has been working on many fronts to undermine western values in the region.

“European leaders urgently need to get to grips with the Kremlin’s meddling, and it is incumbent on them to make it clear to Georgia’s rulers that there will be a cost if Mikheil Saakashvili dies in prison.”

Saakashvili came to power in Georgia in the rose revolution of 2003, and was hailed for sweeping reforms that helped to reduce corruption.

He left office an unpopular figure in 2013, however, and an EU-commissioned report in 2009 suggested he was partly to blame for the start of a war with Russia in 2008 because of his “penchant for acting in the heat of the moment”.

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Saakashvili insisted that his actions, including a military operation in the former autonomous Georgian region of South Ossetia, were necessary to halt Russian military units that were moving in to the area. Russia controls 20% of Georgian territory.

Saakashvili has recently complained from prison that he has been “systematically tortured, physically and psychologically,” and that “there is currently evidence of heavy metal poisoning in my body”.

Thousands of demonstrators massed outside Georgia’s parliament building in Tbilisi on Sunday waving Georgian, Ukrainian and EU flags. Public sentiment is in favour of the country’s accession to the EU, for which the government has applied.

The European Commission has said, however, that Georgia needs to implement judicial and governance reforms before it gains candidate status.

All four men and their families are banned from travelling to the US. They say the US charges are unsubstantiated. One of the judges, Murusidze, claimed that the US government would not stop at imposing a travel ban and “may make an attempt on my life”.