Situation at Penitentiary Establishments
Case of Zurab N., Paata M. and Mirian V.
On July 1st, 2012 representatives of Public Defender met and interviewed convicts Zurab N., Paata M. and Mirian V.,
who on June 23rd, 2012 were transferred from establishment No 15 of the Penitentiary Department to establishment
No 1. The convicts explained that their transfer to the closed type establishment was related to a collective explanatory
note of convicts of establishment N15 where the convicts openly dared to describe treatments inflicted against them.
According to Zurab N., Paata M. and Mirian V. they were especially active in their efforts to convince other convicts in
the necessity of lodging such a complaint. That became the reason for the administration of the Ksani establishment “to
get rid” of them and transfer to establishment No1. This very statement was corroborates by the fact, that susbequently
all the convicts of the Ksani establishment refuted to submit a formal complaint.
Pursuant to convicts, on June 28th, 2012 they, one by one, were summoned by the director of the N1 establishment and
told that if they did not stop complaining first they would be subjected to administrative punishment and afterwards –
their sentence would be prolonged in accordance to the procedures of criminal law. According to convict Zurab N., he
asked the director what reasoning would be used for prolongation of his sentence to which S. Kekelashvili answered
that he was a director and would be the one to decide whether to plant the so-called shtiri (self made knife in prison)
in his pocket or cell or accuse him of an attack on an officer.
According to the convicts, they refused to recall the complaint and for that they were subjected to 40 day-long
administrative sentence each. All three of them stated that they did not commit a crime for which they had been
sentenced by the court decision.
On the same day the representatives of Public Defender met and interviewed 21 convicts placed in cell N30 (the cell
where Zurab N. was kept) of the N1 establishment. According to them, on June 23rd, 2012 Zurab N. was brought into
their cell. The convict did not violate the regime during his presence in the cell, namely, he did not enter into a conflict
with a prison staff and did not communicate with prisoners from other cells. According to the same convicts, Zurab
N. always politely addressed the establishment personnel. The convicts noted that on June 29th, 2012 a prison guard
warned Zurab N. that on Saturday, June 30th he was supposed to be taken to the court though as they said the prison
guard did not specify a reason.
Convicts of other cells refused to give written explanations to Public Defender representatives.
On July 5th, 2012 representatives of Public Defender met and interviewed 11 convicts placed in cell N47 since it was
opening of a window of this very cell and attempting to communicate with its inhabitants was what Paata M. was
accused of. According to words of the convicts of cell N47, on June 28th, 2012 no inmate opened a window of their cell
door. The inmates were saying that they did not know Paata M. and had no conversation had taken place between them.
Penitentiary establishment No 2 in Kutaisi
Starting from summer of 2011, after management was replaced at the penitentiary establishment No 2 in Kutaisi, the
situation with regards to treatment, which had been improved to a certain degree for the period from autumn 2009 till
summer 2011, has noticeably deteriorated. In summer of 2011, the situation in establishment No 2 in Kutaisi in respect
of excessively strict regime requirements was similar to that of establishment N8 highlighted in Public Defender’s
reports. In some cases, treatment of inmates in the establishment N2 in Kutaisi was even worse than at establishment
NPM Report
2012
On the background of all the abovementioned, on June 4th and 5th , 2012 written appeals were sent from Public
Defender’s Office to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia which , as it became clear later, were left without a
response, since the response to the indicated letters N13/44825 was only received by Public Defender’s Office on
October 29th, 2012 and it noted that on October 24th, 2012 the Isani-Samgori District Prosecutors’ office of the City
of Tbilisi launched an investigation on the criminal case N004241012801 regarding the fact of abuse of power by
the personnel of the penitentiary establishment N1 pursuant to the paragraph 1 of the Article 333 of the Georgian
Criminal Code.