On April 2, 2025, the United Kingdom imposed financial sanctions on Levan Murusidze and Mikheil Chinchaladze for bargaining the Georgian justice. The sanctions were implemented two years after the US imposed visa restrictions on the same individuals for alleged involvement in corruption.

We would like to remind the public that on January 12, 2024, an Independent Commission established by the Anti-Corruption Bureau selected nearly 300 officials for monitoring. IDFI was one of the members of this Commission, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau was supposed to carry out the monitoring of declarations.

Of the 300 officials, only four questioned the correctness of the decision made by the Independent Commission, and all four were judges, including Mikheil Chinchaladze and Levan Murusidze. They halted the inspection of their declarations through the court. Court hearings on these cases are still ongoing in the Tbilisi City Court, and members of the Independent Commission are being questioned as witnesses.

It remains unexplained why a judge who considers themselves to act in good faith would object to the Anti-Corruption Bureau monitoring the information included in their declaration. Especially given that the Anti-Corruption Bureau does not have an investigative mandate, and the effectiveness of this mechanism is extremely limited.

It is noteworthy that the integrity check of judges is one of the unfulfilled recommendations of the European Union, the critical need for which has been clearly seen by the public in the examination of cases against victims of violence, torture, and inhuman treatment, as well as other repressive criminal and administrative cases against participants of demonstrations.