80 Prisoners Die in 1½ Years

80 Prisoners Die in 1½ Years

Prisoners die in the prison system almost every week. 80 dead inmates in 18 months – it is a frightening statistic, resulting in criticism of the Ministry of Justice by international organizations. The government talks about its reforms and links the death of inmates to their poor health.

Dead Inmates

In April 2006 alone six prisoners died, to say nothing of recent years:

1. On the 15th of April, Alexander Kovin, aged 61, died in the Prison Hospital of the Ministry of Justice. He suffered from heart and lung disease. Kovin was accused of murder and was imprisoned for ten years.

2. Another inmate, Emzar J., 37, died in the Scientific Centre for Clinical Immunology and HIV. The reason for his death was an AIDS related illness. He was arrested on the 15th December 2005. 

3. Two prisoners died in the Prison Hospital on the 11th of April. According to doctors, the reason for the death of Zurab Khutsurauli, aged 24, was last stage Tuberculoses (TB). Khutsurauli was arrested on the 18th of September 2002 and was imprisoned for 18 years. He was moved from the prison to the hospital on the 8th of April.

4. Giorgi Dzvelishvili, another inmate also died as a result of TB. He was sentenced to three years, six months in prison. He was transferred to hospital from Prison #5 on April the 10th.

5. Inmate Eduard Sharipov, died in the Prison Hospital of the Ministry of Justice on the 30th of April. He was transferred to the jail hospital from Rustavi Prison #1 on the 10th of May, 2005. He was accused of robbery and was imprisoned for nine years.

6. Another prisoner, Zaza B., died in the same day of TB.

According to the information of the Ministry of Justice, eighty prisoners died between 2005 and May 2006. 47 inmates died in 2005 (36 were ill, 10 suffered from TB, 3 committed suicide, 7 died from different traumas and cuts and 1 from unidentified intoxication). By June 2006, 33 inmates had died.

Despite the considerable quantity of dead prisoners, no one has ever been punished. As usual, information about prisoners’ illness is spread, however there are cases of suicides.

The Ombudsman criticizes those facts and demands fair investigation. “I do not know of any case when anyone was punished because of an inmate’s death. I want to remind you of a case of murder in the prison. It took place in the period when the former head of the Penitentiary Department Shota Kopadze was in office. The investigation process has now finished and according to official data, it was a suicide. But it was a murder - we can present several eye-witnesses. We have informed the Prosecutor’s Office about it and hopefully they will restart the investigation.”

According to Sozar Subari, the reason for the death of inmates is also a lack of medical assistance. Two such cases were raised last year. The idea that often prisoners are dying because of a lack of medical attention exists in the NGO sector as well as in society. Nana Kakabadze, a defender of prisoners’ rights, talks about this quite often. According to her, if it were not for the active work of NGOs, many deaths of prisoners would be hidden. “I can think of several cases, when we were the ones spreading the information about the death of prisoners. Otherwise, society would never learn about these facts. As usual the data, published by the Ministry of Justice is unreliable and inaccurate.”

International organizations are also concerned about the mortality rate amongst prisoners. Representatives of ‘Human Rights Watch’ were alarmed about the living conditions of prisoners, the number of deaths and inhuman treatment.

Eka Gulua