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Public Defender Demands Prosecutor’s Office Reaction to Police Activities

May 13, 2008

Sozar Subari, Georgian Public Defender, demands the Prosecutor’s Office to react on instances of Georigan citizens being harassed where there have been some cases where  people were actually detained by police on April 26 in Zahesi, which is in close proximity to Tbilisi.

The Georigan Public Defender has studied the case materials on the detention of Gocha Tskitishvili, Akaki Khmaladze, Giorgi Khaloev and Shalva Korganashvili, and on May 8 he provided all materials he had been provided to the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office for appropriate action.

Sofio Khorguani, Deputy Public Defender, stated at the breifing today, that the Ombudsman considers the police had breached Georigan law while detaining the above-mentioned citizens. More precisely, Article 144 of the Criminal Code which considers the degrading and inhuman treatement of a citizen as an illegal act. On April 26, the day of incident, representative of the Public Defender, visited Mtskheta Police Department where the detainees were in custody. The representative spoke with the detainees and thety told that the police had physically and verbally abused them, which transpired after they had been taken to the Mtskheta Police Station. The police demanded that they plea guilty of having been part of the robbery near the Stone Monastry on April 26. However, aside from the allegations, eyewitnesses of the detention process confirmed in their statements to the Public Defender that the police had physically assaulted the detainees.

”On April 29 Mtskheta District court sentenced the detainees to a two-month term of pre-trial detention. On May 7, a Georigan Appeal Court proceeded to change the outstanding charge into an administrative fine of 2,000 GEL. On May 12, Vano Okropiridze, Mtskheta District Prosecutor, invited Khamaladze and Tskitishvili together with their parents and demanded them to take back their claims that the police had harassed them. Otherwise he said the prosecutor’s office would not agree to sign any plea-bargain agreements with them,” said Sofio Khorguani.

Khorguani added the Prosecutor General’s Office will learn more about the testimonies of the detainees and Public Defender’s request in the nearest future.

Source: medianews

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