Georgia top court clears president's removal for 'unauthorised foreign trips'

Salome Zurabishvili, the pro-Western president of Georgia, will be impeached after the country’s constitutional court found on Monday that she had violated the law by travelling abroad without permission.

The 71-year-old figurehead president was removed from office in September by Georgian Dream party lawmakers who claimed she had met with foreign leaders to push for Georgia’s membership in the European Union without permission.

Merab Turava, the head of Georgia’s constitutional court, informed the media on Monday that Salome Zurabishvili had violated the constitution by travelling abroad without permission.

Maia Kopaleishvili, Zurabishvili’s attorney, told reporters that there was “no legal or factual basis” for the court to affirm the president’s constitutional infraction.

In Georgian history, it was the court’s first case involving the impeachment of a president.

The impeachment vote will take place during the next few days, according to parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

However, the ruling party in Georgia has acknowledged that it has little chance of unseating Zurabishvili because it only holds 84 seats in parliament, whereas at least 100 lawmakers are required.

“There are practically no chances of receiving 100 votes,” the party head Irakli Kobakhidze said, adding, “Should Salome Zurabishvili have elementary dignity, she would resign.”

“She will only be seen nominally as Georgia’s president… and completely deprived of political and moral legitimacy.”

Maia Kopaleishvili, Zurabishvili’s attorney, told reporters that there was “no legal or factual basis” for the court to affirm the president’s constitutional infraction.

In Georgian history, it was the court’s first case involving the impeachment of a president.

The impeachment vote will take place during the next few days, according to parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili.

However, the ruling party in Georgia has acknowledged that it has little chance of unseating Zurabishvili because it only holds 84 seats in parliament, whereas at least 100 lawmakers are required.

“There are practically no chances of receiving 100 votes,” the party head Irakli Kobakhidze said, adding, “Should Salome Zurabishvili have elementary dignity, she would resign.”

While Russia and Georgia have had openly hostile relations for years, the Georgian government, led by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, has made efforts in the past year to improve relations.

Georgia had unrest in March after the government passed a law on “foreign agents” in the Russian model, and the EU denounced the government for reopening direct flights to Russia in May.

With Georgian Dream’s help, Zurabishvili, Georgia’s first female president, was chosen for a six-year term in 2018. However, she swiftly had adversaries among the ranks of the legislative majority.

She was born in France to a Georgian family who had emigrated to Paris in 1921 from the Bolshevik rule.

She served as ambassador to Tbilisi for the final three decades of her career in French diplomacy, and in 2004 she was appointed foreign minister.

In her book “A Woman for Two Countries,” published in France, she wrote: “Now, I have to engage in a political battle, which has never attracted me, which I never practised, which is being imposed on me.”

(with agency inputs)