There is no one at the U.S. Embassy who has tried to influence or pressure any judge or influence the decision of any case. Such a statement made today the US Ambassador to Georgia, while talking about the case of Nika Gvaramia.

“I feel like I’ve answered this question a number of times already, but I will answer it one more time. We do not use our programs to sanction or to punish anyone. Our programs are open to judges, prosecutors, attorneys who are interested in attending, qualified to attend, available to attend, and open to benefiting from these exchanges with their U.S. counterparts and U.S. legal experts.

Our work with the judiciary here over the past years has been focused on helping Georgia develop an independent, impartial, transparent judiciary that issues decisions based on the law, based on the evidence presented, and issued in an independent way. It’s very unfortunate to hear that judges are being pressured here, but I can assure you that pressure is not coming from the United States Embassy. I’m very pleased to have had the opportunity to meet with a number of judges here in Georgia, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Chair of the High Council of Justice on several occasions.

In those meetings, we have discussed the very successful cooperation that the United States has with Georgia in helping Georgia develop a stronger, more independent and transparent judiciary. And this has been very successful work. There is no one at the U.S. Embassy who has tried to influence or pressure any judge or influence the decision of any case. That is simply not the way we operate; it’s not the work that we are doing with the judges. As I said, our work emphasizes the ability to issue clear impartial decisions that are based on the law and based on the evidence presented. I hope that that answers that question”, - said Kelly Degnan.