Five Charged Over Torture After ECHR Ruling

On February 1, the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia (POG) detained three former Interior Ministry employees and launched prosecution against two more in absentia over torture, abuse of authority, unlawful arrest, and falsification of evidence.

The move comes after the June 2020 ruling into the case of Arkania v. Georgia by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Lasha Arkania was subjected to ill-treatment by police during his illegal detainment in 2011, with the Georgian Government failing to conduct an effective investigation into the incident.

According to the POG statement, in June 2011 the former Ministry employees illegally detained and tortured a resident of Tsalenjikha district Lasha Arkania, attempting to reveal from him the location of a fugitive wanted by the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti regional police.

Failing to obtain the desired information by coercion, the Interior Ministry employees falsified a personal search report which declared that Arkania was found with heroin, an AK-47 rifle, and 19 military cartridges. The suspects later forced the illegally detained person to confess to the conspired allegations through intensive physical assaults and threats of rape.

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