Sanctioned Georgian Judges Involved In 'Significant' Corruption, U.S. Says

Washington D.C./06.04.23/Turan:   The State Department on Thursday defended its decision to sanction four Georgian judges, accusing them of significant corruption, and banning them from entering the United States, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We have credible information that these individuals were involved in significant corruption related to their current and former judicial positions" Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily press briefing.

He went on to add, "This corruption undermined the rule of law in Georgia. It undermined Georgia’s democratic processes. It damaged the public’s faith in Georgia’s democratic institutions and officials."

According to Patel, the State Department has gathered this information from a variety of sources, including open sources.

Asked by TURAN if the Department was also considering sanctioning the Georgian Dream government for taking punitive actions against Tbilisi protest participants, Patel said the following: "The U.S. will continue to have a number of tools at its disposal to hold these kinds of individuals accountable...  I’m not going to be prescriptive from here."

Alex Raufoglu