The U.S. Embassy must either refute the fact or someone must take responsibility for pressuring the judge - Irakli Kobakhidze

Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze says he has been waiting for U.S. Ambassador Kelly Deganan to refute the accusations made by judge Lasha Chkhikvidze in the Nika Gvarami case. In his view, the embassy should either explicitly deny the fact or someone should be held responsible for pressuring a Georgian judge from the employee's shoulder.

"If the court defends itself against pressure, this is a normal phenomenon, no one can call it, of course, in fact, objectively a campaign against someone. If there is pressure on the court and the court is defending itself against it, that's a perfectly healthy phenomenon. [...]

On the issue of the court itself, I was expecting an intelligible explanation and denial that there was no such interference. We have been told many times in the past, when there was a campaign about this pressure, that no one at the U.S. Embassy knew about it, so that was the response we expected from the American Ambassador, that she was sure that no one at the U.S. Embassy knew about it, so I thought she refuted the statement made by Judge Chhikvadze, although we did not hear it, which is very suggestive and very troubling, Again, we are interested in getting a clear answer because what happened, whether there was pressure or not, in such a harsh way as said by Judge Chkhikvadze, either that fact should be denied clearly and explicitly, or somebody should take responsibility for the fact that a particular employee put pressure on a Georgian judge," Kobakhidze said.