Statement of the President of the Center Empathy

Statement of the President of the Center Empathy in regard to the Practices of torture and Impunity in Georgia 

On November 19 of 2014 on the official website of the Public defender’s Office of Georgia was published a press-release, from which it became clear, that on November 12 of 2014 in penitentiary facility No8 took place the fact of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment towards convicted persons, which was witnessed by the representatives of the Public defender’s office of Georgia.  Namely: “both convicts lay on the floor in wet clothes.   M.U’s hands and legs were tied together with a special chain.  Both convicts at visual inspection had signs of violence, including on their faces.  M.U. had a cut in the area of his forehead and the wound was bleeding. He had some other injuries as well, while M. F. had a bruise in the area of the right eye”.  According to the statement on the website of the Public Defender’s Office the convicts were kept in the so called shower room and in the hallway was a pool of blood.

Unfortunately, this factual aspects of the incident were qualified as “alleged fact of ill-treatment”, which does not comply with the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

We consider it extremely concerning, that the response to alleged fact of torture was not immediate or effective and similarly ineffective investigation of the fact of torture was initiated only at a later stage, which is another violation of the requirements of articles 12 and 13 of the UN Convention, stipulating for timely, effective and impartial investigation of cases of torture.

We also consider, that current practices and functions of experts of the National Preventive Mechanism are not in compliance with the requirements of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture(OPCAT) and obligations, provided by the law of Georgia on the Public Defender and Istanbul Protocol (Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment).

Taking into consideration all the above mentioned, the center Empathy:

1. Call upon the General Prosecutor of Georgia to conduct all necessary measures, including measures provided by Istanbul Protocol for the purpose of conducting effective, timely and impartial investigation of given incident;
2. Calls upon the Ministry of Penitentiary and Probation to ensure transfer of the alleged victims of torture to another penitentiary facility and prior to completion of investigation suspend authority of all staff of prison No8 who participated in committing or concealing of the alleged fact of torture in compliance with the requirements of the Istanbul Protocol;
3. Calls upon the Public Defender of Georgia to ensure functioning of the National Preventive Mechanism in compliance with the requirements of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and use experts of the National Preventive Mechanism effectively for the proper documentation of facts of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment in compliance with international principles;
4. Applies to international intergovernmental organizations, diplomatic representations and embassies to Georgia and the President of Georgiato support the initiative of NGOs  on setting up of independent monitoring mechanism;
5. Applies to the Chairman of the Sub-committee on Prevention of Torture to (SPT) to provide clearer explanations on correlation between the Istanbul Protocol and OPCAT.
6. Calls upon the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia to revise amendments in to the Code of Imprisonment on August 1 of 2014 on the use of so called special means, as we consider that such means, namely the chains are effectively used and abused by the penitentiary system.

The Center Empathy is applying to all the above mentioned addresses in writing.

20.11.2014.

President of the Center Empathy,
International expert
Mariam Jishkariani,
599 51 63 00;
PR service contact person – Nino Mikiahsvili,
577 43 45 14