Torture issue raised again in Georgia

The Georgian nongovernmental organisations International Community of Prisoners and Union for the Protection of Human Rights, as well as the oppositional Labour Party of Georgia, accuse Mr Bacho Akhalai, Chairman of the Justice Ministry's Penalty Enforcement Department, of organising torture and killings of prisoners.

This is what representatives of the NGOs and the party stated at a joint press conference on 5 January. They demanded that Mr Bacho Akhalai should be arrested immediately to open a "criminal case under a charge of organising mass killings and torture" against him.

"Six prisoners have already died of torture and 22 are in a grave condition, according to our information," said Mr Jondi Bagaturia, a Labour Party representative.

"We cannot give a more precise figure as neither relatives nor doctors are admitted to temporary detention isolators," Mr Bagaturia told News Georgia agency.

On 4 January, the Georgian People's Defender Sozar Subari sent a letter to his former deputy, Mr Bacho Akhalai, in which he demanded ensuring unimpeded contacts of Georgian prisoners with their lawyers.

At the ombudsman's office, they also note that "prisoners' rights are rudely violated in Georgian prisons."