Narchemashvili’s Initiatives Anger Human Rights Activists
At the November 21 Parliament Session Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili asked the parliament to consider expanding the 12-hour limit on primary detention of suspects. During these 12 hours, according to the current criminal procedure code, the suspect can be kept incommunicado, without the right to contact the relatives or the lawyer.
Nana Kakabadze, representative of a non-governmental organization Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights, says that majority of human rights abuse by the police officials occurs precisely during this period. International observers agree.
“What the interior minister is pushing for is a torturers’ charter,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division. “Both the Council of Europe and the UN have demanded more safeguards for detainees in Georgia, but now the Interior Ministry proposes the exact opposite.”
Spokesman of the Interior Ministry Paata Gomelauri says that Andersen is exaggerating. “I was amazed at the language the Human Rights Watch used. I do not wish to even talk about facts of torture. Everybody knows that Narchemashvili is strongly against the torture”.
While Narchemashvili pushes for extension of the 12-hour limit, human rights advocacy organizations, including the Human Rights Watch, demand the right of immediate contact with the lawyer.
Several citizens, supported by the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and the Public Defender’s Office, have addressed the Constitutional Court demanding elimination of the detention incommunicado.
Giorgi Chkheidze of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association told Civil Georgia that it is imperative that a person receives a status of detainee right at the moment of arrest, so that he or she has a defined legal status and has the right for defense.
The human rights organizations also object minister Narchemashvili’s another initiative – to legalize so-called “operative activities” or preliminary investigation by the police in the penitentiary facilities. Such activities include eavesdropping and creation of a network of the undercover agents and informers in prison facilities.
The Interior Ministry responds saying these practices are widely accepted in other countries. Paata Gomelauri said that preliminary investigation in penitentiary facilities, which are currently subordinated to the Ministry of Justice, would significantly assist in investigation of many crimes.
“Our experience shows [that] the necessary minimum [of such activities]…would allow the Interior Ministry to increase dramatically its performance with the current background of grave criminal situation in the country,” Gomelauri says.
However, Nana Kakabadze of the NGO “Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights”, believes that the police should be not have the right of preliminary investigation not only in penitentiary facilities, but also anywhere else. She believes this right, enshrined in the Law on Police of 1999 contradicts Georgia’s obligations under the European Human Rights Convention.
The new controversy surrounding Narchemashvili’s parliament speech revives the rift old rift between the human rights activists. After removal of the odious Interior Minister Kakha Targamadze during the public protests of October-November 2001, Narchemashvili has improved the ministry’s profile with civil groups by advocating progressive reforms. It seems, however, that a political pressure to crack down on crime may force the Minster to alter his earlier policies.
By Salome Jashi, Civil Georgia