ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER OF GEORGIA 2013
regulation of parole and postponement of sentence enforcement on account of health condition was changed.
The Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance enacted up to 60 legal acts with a view of perfecting the applicable rules. Penitentiary personnel were provided with training opportunities. However, despite these positive
changes and activities implemented, a handful of problems remains in the penitentiary system, which we will be
discussing in detail below.
ILL-TREATMENT IN PRETRIAL DETENTION FACILITIES AND INSTITUTIONS
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FOR SENTENCED PRISONERS
Prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment is one of the fundamental values in a democratic
society protected by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.3 Another important international instrument in the area of combating ill-treatment is the Optional Protocol to the
Convention against Torture, which laid foundation for the creation of national preventive mechanisms. In Georgia,
the Public Defender acts as a National Preventive Mechanism, pursuant to the Georgian Organic Law on Public
Defender.
It goes without saying that, compared to the previous years (until Fall 2012) when torture and other ill-treatment
were of systemic nature in pretrial detention facilities and penitentiary institutions, the situation has drastically
improved in 2013. In the course of monitoring such facilities and institutions, our special preventive group has not
detected a single allegation of torture – a fact that should be evaluated as a positive change in combating inhuman
practices. However, ill-treatment of prisoners remains a problem because in 2013 a number of prisoners did mentioned that they had been ill-treated again.
During the reporting period, the Public Defender received requests and applications from numerous prisoners
alleging that they had been subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in the period
preceding Fall 2012. The Office of the Public Defender responded to each case by forwarding relevant information
and materials to the Chief Prosecution Office and followed up by requesting the Prosecution Office to provide
information about actions taken. According to the replies received, the Prosecution Office had opened criminal
investigation on a majority of applications through its territorial offices, according to their jurisdictional rules.
However, effectiveness of these investigations is questionable in some cases, which we will explain in detail in this
report.
The case concerning O.G.
On 24 December 2013, members of our Special Preventive Group were on their scheduled visit to the Penitentiary
Institution No. 8. When examining quarantine conditions, they heard several people shouting loudly. To find out
what was going on, the Group members went up on the second floor of the quarantine building where they saw
a prisoner surrounded by some of the staff members of the Institution No. 8. They were verbally and physically
insulting the prisoner. The Special Preventive Group noticed injuries on Prisoner O.G.’s body.
As O.G. stated to the trustees of the Public Defender, on 24 December 2013, he was met with by one of the members of the prison staff in the quarantine building of the Institution No. 8. According to O.G., this prison official
had been beating him up in 2011 – 2013 as a result of which his health was injured and the Gldani-Nadzaladevi
Prosecution Office of Tbilisi was investigating this case at the material time. As O.G. explained to us, he was suffering from mental disorder that caused him enter into some disagreement with the mentioned official who then
started verbally and physically abusing him.
The Public Defender addressed the Chief Prosecutor with a recommendation to immediately open investigation
into the ill-treatment possibly administered against the prisoner. The Prosecution Office replied that they commenced criminal investigation under Article 333 of the Criminal Code.
3 The European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, 4 November 1950, Article 3: “No one shall be
subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”.
NPM Report
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