TBILISI. April 18 (Interfax) - The Georgian parliament at a plenary session on Tuesday did not accept the opposition's proposal to set up a temporary investigative commission following the United States sanctions imposed on four Georgian judges accused of corruption.
Opposition lawmakers initiated the establishment of the commission. They took advantage of the parliamentary regulations, which stipulate that one third of the legislature is entitled to form a temporary investigative commission (the Georgian parliament has 150 deputies, and 56 of them are from the opposition).
At the debate, opposition rapporteur Khatuna Samnidze failed to answer the question of representatives of the parliamentary majority on what specific accusations for corruption against the four judges an investigative commission is being set up.
"The opposition intends to set up a commission without any evidence of corruption in the judicial system, only on the orders of the U.S. embassy, which interferes in Georgia's internal affairs," parliamentary majority representative Guram Macharashvili said.
Before the vote, leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze made a statement that the parliamentary majority would not take part in the vote. As a result, the issue was withdrawn due to the lack of a quorum of 76 votes when the deputies were registered in the session hall.
On April 5, the U.S. embassy in Georgia issued a statement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken imposing sanctions for corruption against four high-ranking Georgian judges, namely, Mikheil Chinchaladze, Levan Murusidze, Irakli Shengelia, and Valerian Tsertsvadze. At the same time, the U.S. side did not cite any specific counts of corruption.