The Ombudsman Presents Human Rights Report to Parliament

The Ombudsman Presents Human Rights Report to Parliament

On May 19th, the Ombudsman of Georgia presented the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee within the Parliament of Georgia with a report on the human rights situation in Georgia. Sozar Subari criticized police officers of using excessive force during special operations. The report however fails to be persuasive in the section concerning media freedom, a point highlighted by the case of Gela Mtivlishvili, the journalist falsely accused of arranging terror-attacks upon himself.

A big part of the report concerns deaths during special operations. The Ombudsmen cannot remember any time when those responsible for violations in the course of a bloody special operation were punished: “Recently, there has been an increase in cases when special operations result in the liquidation of suspects. It is an international standard to use force in case of necessity. However, every case must be thoroughly studied and in a case where force is used excessively, those responsible must be punished - both those who planed the operation and those who carried it out”.

He named concrete cases where excessive force by the police was used. These are: the special operation carried out on May 2nd and during the prison riot on March 27th. “The police reported different versions of events. The case should be thoroughly investigated in order to prevent such kinds of activities from law enforcers”, stated the Ombudsman of Georgia.

With regard to the riot in the prison on March 27th, Subari highlighted that before the riot the prisoners had called him complaining about being beaten in the prison and asked him to help them. “Every inmate claims the same thing. They say that Bacho Akhalaia abused his power and beat prisoners in the prison hospital. The action was protested against by other prisoners who were supported by the inmates in Prison # 5”, states Subari.

Subari is confident that there has genuinely been an abuse of power by law enforcers. He stated that although there are certain issues which are hard to prove, they have been provided with enough information to reveal the fact that power has been abused. “The majority of the prisoners claim they were kept wounded in their cells. This raises suspicions that the officers used force against the prisoners. Some inmates were wounded through the windows. One of the prisoners – Tskhovrebov – was killed by a bullet shot through a window. Tear-gas or rubber bullets could have been used instead”, stated the Ombudsman.

According to the facts, Sozar Sobari concluded that human rights are primarily being violated within the penitentiary and judiciary systems. He states: “I do not remember any perpetrator being punished for the death of a prisoner. There was a death at the prison when Shota Kopadze was the Head of the Penitentiary Department. According to the materials we possessed, it was a murder that was known about by the administration; however the investigation was then misled. The case was closed and the death was listed as a suicide. We informed the Prosecutor General’s Office and the investigation has been restarted”.

According to the report, human rights violations occur in every field. The statistics reveal that 47 prisoners died in 2005 and 24 prisoners have died within the last 4 months of 2006.

A special chapter concentrates on freedom of expression. It states that journalists are not independent and because of the fear of losing their jobs, journalists have to follow the instructions of the authorities. It also states that there are no sufficient labour contacts for journalists in Georgia. The fact that it is difficult for independent media to operate with limited finances is also highlighted in the chapter.

The report listed the case of Gela Mtivlishvili, editor of the ‘Imedi’ newspaper, published in Gurjaani. Because of assassination attempts on the journalist, the explosion of a bomb in his yard and beatings, representatives of the Ombudsman have had to travel to Kakheti several times. However, the conclusions presented in the report are not convincing. “According to the investigatory group, a careful study of the investigation material enabled them to analyse objectively the reasons why the law enforcers were delaying the investigation. The group came to the conclusion that the police and the media organisation, which is permanently under attack, were not interested in settling the case. The members of the investigatory group stated that Gela Mtivlishvili is himself the organizer of the attacks against him. Regarding the case the investigatory group sent an appeal to the Media Council of Georgia”, stated the report.

NGOs and journalists are irritated with this part of the report. Sozar Subari states that these conclusions were worked out by the investigatory group, the members of which know Mtivlishvili well. However, the names of those journalists were not included. The report also fails to mention the facts the groups’ conclusions are based on. The conclusions were unexpected for Gela Mtivlishvili. He states: “The conclusions written by three particular journalists, but emanating from the Gurjaani Regional Administration and the Kakheti Administration, are immoral, humiliating, slanderous and against any code of professional ethics. These conclusions have not been signed by the other members of the investigatory group or even representatives of the Ombudsman. Why? Maybe to prevent Sozar Subari from obviously violating human rights? Sozar Subari has a lot of foolishness in the section of his report regarding the media – myself included. Another lie in his report is that he traveled to Gurjaani in order to study the case. Maybe he just traveled there to visit his friend – the Governor. I am ready to take responsibility if the police can prove I have committed any crime”.

Eka Gulua