CAT/C/60/D/573/2013
1.
The complainants are D.C., a national of Georgia born on 10 May 1955, and his son
D.E., also a national of Georgia, born on 21 March 1980. The complainants claim to be
victims of violations by Georgia of articles 1, 11, 12, 13 and 16 of the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Georgia made a
declaration under article 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 30 June 2005. The complainants are not
represented by counsel.
The facts as submitted by the complainants
2.1
The first complainant is a medical doctor by profession and worked for a nongovernmental organization. The second complainant lives on a pension that he receives
from the State as a result of his incapacity which is due to diabetes.
2.2
On 10 October 2010, around 4.30 p.m., officers of the criminal police arrested the
first complainant in the yard of the home of his son — the second complainant — and
forced him to enter a vehicle. The arresting officers then threatened the first complainant
and hit him with their fists on his body and head. The officers falsified the first
complainant’s arrest record to obscure the duration of time that he spent in their custody;
they incorrectly recorded that he was first detained at 5.40 p.m. and was delivered to a
police station at 9.10 p.m., and recorded that there were no visible injuries on his body.
2.3
The second complainant called the police in order to find out what had happened to
his father, and police officers came to the second complainant’s apartment. When he
refused to let them enter, one of the police officers hit him over the head with the handle of
his pistol. While he was partially stunned, the officer reached into the pocket of the second
complainant’s coat to take the keys to his apartment and planted four bullets from a
Makarov pistol in his pocket. The officers entered the apartment, where they planted a
cartridge with bullets and 20 ampoules of morphine. The second complainant was then also
arrested; his arrest record states that he was delivered to the police station at 9.10 p.m. The
wound he incurred from being hit by the arresting officer was noted in the arrest record as
being the sole injury found on him at that time.
2.4
The authorities accused the complainants of kidnapping and illegal possession of
ammunition and narcotics. They were interrogated for about eight hours, during which time
they were kept handcuffed, beaten, kicked, strangled and threatened that they would be
thrown out of the window. The second complainant was burned with a cigarette and
subjected to attempted rape. The officers threatened to inflict further harm on them and to
arrest other family members of the complainants if the complainants did not admit to
committing the crimes. Police officers and officers from the Prosecutor’s Office, in
particular one with the initials T.A., participated in the torture.
2.5
After midnight on 11 October 2010, the complainants were transferred to a
temporary detention facility where they were evaluated by the medic on duty. Medical
certificates provided by the complainants indicate that the first complainant had numerous
small abrasions around his neck and collarbone and bruises on his leg, and the second
complainant had haemorrhages on his head, his eyebrow and jaw were swollen, and there
were multiple abrasions around his neck and collarbone.
2.6
The second complainant also alleges that he was not allowed to have insulin
injections for the entire period of detention in the police station and in the temporary
detention facility, which resulted in aggravation of his condition.
2.7
On an unspecified date, the complainants were convicted for crimes under articles
181 (extortion), 144 (kidnapping), 260 (illicit preparation, production, purchase, keeping,
shipment, transfer or sale of narcotics) and 236 (illicit purchase, keeping, carrying,
production, shipment, transfer or sale of firearms, ammunitions, explosive materials or
explosive devices) of the Criminal Code of Georgia. The first complainant was sentenced to
30 years of imprisonment and the second complainant was sentenced to 32 years of
imprisonment. The convictions under article 181 were subsequently overturned by the
Supreme Court, on appeal. The newly elected Parliament issued, on 28 December 2012, an
amnesty law for various crimes, including those under articles 236 and 260, and the
complainants’ sentences were subsequently reduced to 9 years of imprisonment each.
2