Human Rights Center Evaluates Work of New Department at the Prosecutor’s Office

Natia Gogolashvili 

On August 14, representatives of the Human Rights Center held press-conference and negatively evaluated the work of the new department at the prosecutor’s office which investigates alleged crimes during legal proceedings. 

Human Rights Center believes the new department does not meet the minimum standards of transparency and accountability, which seriously questions the effectiveness of its work.

“Six months later thousands of people wait launch of the investigation by the government. We see there is no effective mechanism to eradicate miscarriages of justice in Georgia. Victims of torture and inhuman treatment are waiting for their cases to be revised and perpetrators punished. We see that nothing was done in this direction,” executive director of Human Rights Center Aleko Tskitishvili said at the press-conference.

“Work of the new department is not transparent for the society. The society is not well informed about the outcome of their work. We tried to request public information from the new department but we received only statistic data. Currently, the department is processing 172 cases, among them 8 cases refer to torture and inhuman treatment; the other 121 cases are about seizure of property. We still cannot understand based on which criteria those 8 cases on torture were selected when dozen thousands complaints were sent to the chief prosecutor’s office since 2012, from the period when the new department revises cases,” head of legal service at Human Rights Center Tamar Avaliani said.

Former political prisoner Jemal Gundishvili, convicted for the so-called Kintsvisi Case, said the prosecutor’s office purposefully drags out the investigation.

“The case is that investigator Kublashvili, who was in charge of the so-called Kintsvisi Case in Gori, several times told us in private talks that the investigation will not progress without their permission. Short time later my friends and I learned that supervisor prosecutor of our case Giorgi Gabitashvili is now deputy chief prosecutor. I doubt he hinders the investigation,” the former political prisoner Gundishvili said.

Human Rights Center calls on the Chief Prosecutor’s Office to permanently update society about ongoing work at the department and to improve their accountability standards before the society.