The embassy has always tried to control the judicial system, this is the reason for the sanctions - Murusidze

US-sanctioned judge Levan Murusidze says the US embassy wants to take over the judiciary. He says the case is not about corruption, and for years there have been attempts to seize the court through various efforts, involving NGOs, political parties and international organisations."I will tell you directly that I am absolutely sure that the mentioned issue will not be reviewed, because it is not a case of corruption and I declare this with full responsibility. Corruption is just a cover, a proven method by which a certain goal is achieved, and I will tell you what it is to accuse judges of corruption, it is the allegation, which I repeat, is out of the question, and they cannot provide any evidence in this regard.

Now what is the real reason, this has been going on for years, and the real reason is the capture of the judiciary, which is being  done, the efforts were first through the non-governmental sector, then political parties got involved, then let's say international organizations, who deliberately wrote about the so-called court clan and were preparing positions, but the mentioned result could not be achieved, they failed to take hold of the court because I say with full responsibility that the embassy always tried to control the court system, therefore they made this decision," Murusidze said.According to him, through sanctioning   a message was sent to the judicial system, which is as follows: "If the judges do not take into account the positions of the Ambassador and the Embassy in relation to a specific case, and the judge does not make a decision that is acceptable to the Ambassador and that is consistent with her policy, we will treat all of you in the same way as we treated the judges whom we sanctioned".

As an example of this, he cited the example of Lasha Chkhikvadze, the judge on the case of Director  General of the "Mtavari  Channel", Nika Gvaramia.