Attorneys Illegally Barred From Khoni Prison and their Clients

Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi

Close friends and associates, including attorneys of prisoners who are serving out their sentences in Khoni Prison # 8 have complained about difficult conditions in this penitentiary institution once again.  It turned out that after several prisoners had escaped from Khoni Prison # 8 amid the turmoil of recent Russian occupation, and to the degree the situation had deteriorated at the facility over time. Attorneys are now totally barred from entering the prison. However, no one has explained the reason as to why attorneys cannot see their clients and the legal basis for them being blocked legal access.

“I tried to visit my client twice in Khoni Prison after prisoners had escaped. However, my attempt was blocked and I did not see my client. My efforts were all in vain. When the prison administration refused to allow me to enter the prison the first time they were at a lost to give a reason why.  I immediately called on the hot line of the Georgian Ministry of Justice. I informed them about the situation and they told me to wait near the prison. They suggested that the prison director might be out on business. They told me to find out when he would come back. The prison administration representatives told me that they did not know when the director would return and nonetheless still refused to let me in without the director’s permission. I asked for the director’s mobile phone number. I wanted to call him and take permission from him personally. However, the prison administration representatives did not give me the number. In the end I found the director’s number using my personal sources. The prison director told me that he was on a visit to a dentist and was intending to go to another doctor later. Therefore, he did not know when he would return to the prison. I inferred from his answer that I should not spend time waiting for him. This was a rather unserious answer for the person with this kind of high ranking position. He also advised me to call him in advance next time. I can not understand why I must call a prison director when I want to visit a jailed prisoner,” stated Ana Chapidze, attorney.

Chapidze recalls the second instance of attempted entrance to the prison, “I called the director in advance. We agreed that I would see my client today. However, the prison administration still did not let me in again. This time they tried to justify their decision by absence of my name in the court verdict as an attorney representing my client. This fact has simple explanation: I was not protecting my present client’s interests in the court of first instance. Naturally, my name was not indicated in the court verdict. However, I met my client once two months before the prisoners’ escaped and I left the court warrant authorizing me to enter the prison and visit my client any time. I entered the prison freely that time. However, now I am barred from entering the prison and the reason for this refusal was very vague. I consider that my right of an attorney to exercise the protection of my client as having been blatantly violated. The prisoner’s right which is protected by Article 42 of the Constitution was also infringed upon.”

Other attorneys continue to face the same sort of problems. They say that they could meet their clients after having overcome weak resistance of the administration earlier but now the situation has changed dramatically and they are now facing serious problems.

“We (attorneys) used to be “interrogated” by the prison director as for our purpose of entering the prison, as to what was topic of our conversation with our clients and on the materials we were taking into the prison. However, in comparison, we now see something for the first time. I arrived in Khoni Prison # 8, Imereti region on Friday. The prison administration representatives told me that they could not allow me into the prison as I arrived on the day when they did not right to allow attorneys into the prison without the director’s permission. Had it been Wednesday or Thursday they would have prevented me from entering the prison for the same alleged reasons. I am intending to go to the prison again in several days, and if I continue to face the same problems, I will take all necessary measures,” stated Tsitsino Babunashvili, attorney.

Levan Pachulia, director of Khoni Prison # 8 was appointed on the post about one month ago. He tries to avoid our question on why attorneys are barred from entering Khoni Prison without his personal permission and proceeds to hang up phone with the claim that he has guests.”

Madona Basiladze, head of West Georgian Division of Georgian Public Defender’s Office elucidates that “no one including Pachulia has the right to bar attorneys from entering the prison and visiting with their clients. According to Georgian Law on Incarceration the right of meeting with an attorney is to be unrestricted.”

The right of access to an attorney is guaranteed by the Criminal Procedural Code of Georgia and the European Convention on Human Rights. However, we face the different situation in reality. The situation gives attorneys grounds for thinking that the prisoners’ conditions have deteriorated. Moreover, some might be severely beaten and had their human rights possibly violated in other ways.