Public Defender’s Statement Concerning the Incident in Sagarejo Police Department

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On October 18, 2013, I addressed Mr. Irakli Garibashvili, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia with a recommendation regarding interference into the professional activities of the members of Public Defender’s special prevention group and abuse of power by the Deputy Chief of Sagarejo District Police Department, Mr. Giorgi Revazishvili. 

On October 19, Ms. Nino Giorgobiani, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia dispersed inaccurate information on Public Broadcaster announcing that the members of Special Prevention Group did not show their professional identification documents to the police officers at the Sagarejo District Police Department and did not even provide verbal clarification, which lead to their expulsion from the duty station of the Police Department. 

In the video footage recorded by one of the experts of the Special Prevention Group with a cell phone and already spread through the social network and by the mass media sources, it is clearly evident that the representatives of Public Defender are both verbally clarifying their identity and presenting the letter of credence that allows them to enter any establishment without any impediment, as well as request any document for monitoring purposes. You can see in the video that the Deputy Chief of Sagarejo District Police Department does not pay any attention to their clarification and expels the members of the Special Preventive Group from the duty station. In addition, in one of the recordings the Chief of Sagarejo District Police Department admits that the representative of Public Defender did present the letter of credence to the duty officer, however the duty officer did not understand what type of document were they presenting. In this case, the reason must have been the lack of qualification of the police officer. As for Mr. Giorgi Revazishvili’s actions, they violate disciplinary and administrative norms and may contain elements of crime. Due to this reason, I have addressed the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia together with the Minister of Internal Affairs asking to conduct preliminary investigation. 

Members of the Special Prevention Group have been conducting monitoring of police departments for years and have never encountered this type of problems. Even at present, monitoring of police departments and temporary detention isolators that started back in August is proceeding without any significant complications. Employees of every police department and temporary detention isolator, including Sagarejo Temporary Detention Isolator demonstrate full cooperation with the representatives of Public Defender and assist them in the conducting complete monitoring, in accordance with the law. 

This makes such sever violation of the law by the Sagarejo District Police Department employees, as well as the unprofessional and inappropriate announcement of the Public Relations Department of the Minister of Internal Affairs, that implied that my representatives provided me inaccurate information, even more regrettable. If not for the video footage, even the fact that the incident had taken place may have become questionable. 

One of the most effective instruments to prevent torture and inhuman treatment is to adequately react upon violations uncovered by the National Preventive Mechanism. Failure to ensure this in recent years has lead to systematic issues of inhuman treatment and spread of feeling of impunity. Therefore, I once again urge the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Irakli Gharibashvili to conduct personal oversight of the investigation of October 17, 2013 incident at Sagarejo District Police Department and to take all necessary measures to ensure that every police officers is aware of what is the Nation Preventive Mechanism of Public Defender, and what legal obligations do they have towards individuals representing the Public Defender.