Statement of Human Rights Center about hindering the professional activities of the advocate and disclosing personal information on deacon Mamaladze

Human Rights Center addresses the General Inspection of the Ministry of Corrections with regard to hindering professional activities of the advocate and disclosing the personal information on Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze

On December 11, in the period between 10:30 am – 13:00 pm, the head of the legal aid service at Human Rights Center Tamar Avaliani, advocate of Giorgi Mamaladze, was in the prison # 9 and brought documentations to convicted Giorgi Mamaladze to sign them (the documents were agreements between Giorgi Mamaladze and a commercial bank).

On December 7, convicted Giorgi Mamaladze sent letter to the director of prison # 9 to notify him about the intention to receive the aforementioned documentation with the support of advocates.

Having arrived at the prison # 9 the advocate passed the security check and went to the meeting with the convicted person together with the documents. When entering the security officers did not say anything about the documents. The advocate protested that some prison officers tried to read the documents that is prohibited by the law. After the protest, they stopped reading the document and the advocate took the documents to the facility without any obstacles. 

After the meeting with the convicted, when Tamar Avaliani passed the second security check, a person entered the room and said he was deputy director of the prison # 9. He prohibited the advocate to take the documents away with her outside the facility claiming that they were not connected with the criminal case the deacon Giorgi Mamaladze was convicted for. The advocate clarified that the penitentiary institution did not have right to seize the documents from the advocate, which were about personal relations of Giorgi Mamaladze with the bank and the prison administration did not have right to read them. The advocate offered the prison personnel to allow her re-enter the facility again and hand the documents to Giorgi Mamaladze herself. However, the prison administration members responded her aggressively and said she could not leave the territory with those documents; they said they would hand the documents to the prisoner themselves. Thus, in fact as a result of oppression methods, the documents were seized from the advocate.

On December 13, Tamar Avaliani was informed that the documents, which contained personal information on the Deacon Giorgi Mamaladze (his relationship with the bank), were not handed to the convicted person and they were sent to the investigation.

Human Rights Center calls on the Ministry of Corrections to clarify based on respective normative acts and articles:

• what were the legal basis to seize the abovementioned documents from the lawyer;
• what were the legal basis to allow the advocate to enter the prison facility with the documents and if they were unlawful documents, why the prison security guards allowed her to enter the prison with them;
• what were the legal basis to send the abovementioned documents – personal information on convicted Giorgi Mamaladze to the investigation;
• to immediately archive and send the full video-recording of HRC advocate Tamar Avaliani’s visit in prison # 9 on December 11 (in the period of 10:30 am-13:00 pm);
• the General Inspection of the Ministry of Corrections shall immediately start investigation into the fact of hindering professional activities of the advocate and about disclosing the personal, confidential information of the convicted to indentify the offender prison personnel from facility # 9 and to punish them in accordance to the law.

Human Rights Center