Alarming Statistics Makes Law enforcers Focus on Human Rights

On the background of blowing the whistle by civil watchdogs against human rights violations in prisons, Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili and Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili said that from now on more attention would be paid to eradicating human rights abuses within the law-enforcement agencies.
 
With this purpose, monitoring groups will be set up at the Public Defender’s Office to permanently control the activities of the law-enforcement agencies. According to Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili, the prosecutor’s office has already brought 14 charges against the facts of torture [of suspects] and planting of drugs.
 
“During the first stage, law enforcement agencies aimed at tackling corruption and confiscating illegally acquired possessions [by officials]. Now, we should pay more attention to the protection of human rights,” Zurab Adeishvili said at a news briefing on October 18.
 
The issue of setting up monitoring groups to control the activities of the law-enforcement agencies was raised after the talks between the President of Georgia and the civil watchdogs, when the alarming statistical data over the facts of tortures were revealed.
 
According to the data of the Liberty Institute, after the Rose Revolution the facts of tortures of suspects and detainees have increased.
 
“According to the data for past 11 months, 558 persons have declared about the facts of their tortures and beating. This figure does not include those persons who preferred to keep silence,” Tea Tutberidze of the Liberty Institute told Civil Georgia.
 
“The situation is especially difficult in the regions, where it is almost impossible to control the activities of the law-enforcement agencies. Very often not only suspects are beaten, but also those who are summoned as witnesses. We have the necessary evidences,” Tea Tutberidze said.
 
Along with torture and beating of the suspects, planting of false evidences, such as drugs or weapons, has become very often. This can be confirmed by recent arrest of Mikheil Kebadze, ex-commander of Georgian Peacekeeping Battalion deployed in the South Ossetian conflict area.
 
Mikheil Kebadze was arrested on October 13 for illegal possession of arms. Kebadze’s wife claimed that the law enforcers planted a hand grenade, while searching the ex-chief’s house. Later court sentenced him to three-month pretrial detention. However, on October 17 he was surprisingly released with further suspension of the investigation. The Security Ministry claimed that Kebadze was suspected of divulging secrete information, which was equal to treason. However, due to lack of evidences the charges were not brought against him. Meanwhile, the issue of weapon still remains unclear. If Kebadze really had an unregistered weapon at home, it is unclear why he was released.
Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights Elene Tevdoradze also raised concern over frequent facts of human rights abuses in the places of pretrial detention.
 
She hailed the initiative over setting up the monitoring groups composed of the representatives of the non-governmental sector. 
 
“Similar precedent should be created in the country. The law-enforcement agencies should understand that their activities are controlled and they should assume responsibility in case of human rights violations,” Elene Tevdoradze told Civil Georgia.
 
The members of the monitoring groups will inform the Ombudsman regarding the results of checkout. In case of revealing the facts of human rights abuses, the issue of responsibility of law-enforcers will be raised. “Everybody, regardless his rank, should assume responsibility for violation of human rights,” Ombudsman Sozar Subari said.