Unbearable Conditions in Prison Results in TB Death

Alina Tarashvili

Inmate Ilia Tarashvili died for want of proper medical treatment in jail from the long-term complication of tuberculosis. Although family members and attorneys of Ilia Tarashvili requested to postpone the discussion of his criminal because of his acute health conditions, the court did not consider their request. Instead, they proceed and imposed a sentence of 8 years and seven months in prison on him.

Sighnaghi prosecutor’s office opened criminal investigation against Ilia Tarashvili in 2003 for having stolen some cows. Ilia Tarashvili claimed that he had not committed the crime and Sandro Kutibashvili, investigator from Dedoplistskaro, had requested him to plead guilty to the charge. The investigator promised him that because of poor health conditions the court would postpone the discussion of his case. However, the court did not take the gravity of this his illness into consideration when passing judgment.  Shalva Mchedlishvili, judge at Gurjaani district court, imposed imprisonment for 8 years and 7 months on Tarashvili.
The widow of Tarashvili reported to the Human Rights Center that Ilia Tarashvili could not commit a crime because he could not even physically move at that time.

“In 2002 he was released from Ksani prison because of his existing poor state of health, which means that he left prison on February 10, 2002 and committed another crime on February 12 2003. How could he recover from his illness within one year where he was able to go out and steal some cows?”

“During the first court hearing the court had serious complaints that we did not attend the criminal process. We provided the notifications of the doctors almost at every trial where the doctors wrote that his health conditions were grave and could not attend the trial. One day bailiffs took him to the court. The judge asked the bailiffs whether he had resisted them while transportation and they refused. Just the opposite, they said that Ilia Tarashvili thanked them for having taken them to the court because he could not go himself.”

Attorneys requested to postpone the liability on Ilia Tarashvili at the very first instance. Forensic expertise was conducted in May of 2008. The expertise concluded that Ilia Tarashvili was not seriously ill; though his health conditions were assessed as “progressively grave”. Based on that conclusion, the courts propone the hearing of the charges or even discharge him. However, the court did not consider the conclusion of the expertise and Ilia Tarashvili was found guilty Georgian Criminal Code, Article 177, and Paragraph II-III and was sent to prison for 8 years and 7 months. The Human Rights Center appealed against the verdict at the Appeal Court; however Ilia Tarashvili’s health conditions were not considered by the appeal court either, and it upheld the verdict of June 30 2008 of Gurjaani district court as being valid.

However, the prisoner was ill with tuberculosis; he was bleeding from the lungs and could not breathe properly. Moreover, his right leg is broken and the injury has not healed normally as yet. Consequently, he could not even walk. The health conditions of the prisoner was getting worse day-by-day. Despite that, he was not allowed to have an inhalator and walking stick in the jail.

Alina Tarashvili, the widow: “I visited him in Ksani prison for three times. His legs were swollen all the time. On my second visit he said that his hands, face and lips were getting swollen as well. He asked me to urge the court to postpone the charge; he wanted to die with his children.”

Nino Andriashvili, lawyer for the Human Rights Center, also speaks about the worsened health conditions of the prisoner.
“When I visited him in prison I found out that he could not walk unassisted; he met me with the support of the bailiff. He had serious bleeding and could not breathe. The prisoner told me that he was not allowed to have a walking stick; and when he requested for inhalator they gave him a light one that could not assist him at all.

“I appealed to the penitentiary department and requested to examine health conditions of Ilia Tarashvili and to place him in the jail hospital in the case of necessity. However, the penitentiary department did not respond to my petition. My next step was to appeal to the Public Defender. Several days later I fund out that Ilia Tarashvili was taken to Ksani dispenser for Tuberculosis. However, I had requested to place him in the jail hospital. Unfortunately, our organization involved the case only when it was discussed by the Appeal court. We consider that verdict should not have reached in 2008 for the crime that was committed as far back as 2003. We doubt that the court and prosecutor’s office knew about his health conditions and intentionally extended the case; supposedly so that they could wait for the death of Ilia Tarashvili.”

Despite the petitions of the Human Rights Centre and Guram Gogidze, attorney of the late prisoner, nobody tried to create adequate conditions for Ilia Tarashvili while he in prison. At the end of his fourth month of the imprisonment Tarashvili died in jail hospital where he was held there to be examined.