Prisoner Sewed Up His Mouth and Eyes and Then Cut His Body by Sharp Knife

Ana Sheshaberidze

On February 14 Apolon Giorgadze sewed his mouth and on February 16 - eyes. Giorgadze does not plead guilty and for this reason he used grave forms of protest. On February 8, more precisely, Kutaisi City Court added more 6 years to his sentence, later ten months were added to his term for disobedience to prison officer. Before that, he was sent to prison for 12 years because of robbery. By now, he has served only 5 years. The prisoner does not plead himself guilty in any of the accusations.

The reason of prisoner’s protest was his unsatisfied request on meeting the prison director. Moreover, prison doctor did not visit him either. After prison supervisor insulted him, he cut his hand and stomach by a sharp knife. He requested the prison personnel to explain him why they had not sent his appeals to Public Defender, Young Lawyers Association and Chief Prosecutor’s Office. The lawyers of the prisoner requested to launch criminal prosecution against the prison personnel in order to prevent similar facts in future.

The doctor visited the prisoner after this incident and made 9 stitches on his cut hand. The lawyer Bela Tsulaia visited him on February 28.According to her, Apolon Giorgadze was in hospital and doctors pay attention to him. Doctors opened his sewed-up mouth. The lawyer supposes that monitoring group of the Public Defender’s office visited him in prison and after that Giorgadze was placed in hospital. According to her, the prisoner is not going to stop protest and he will continue hunger-strike.

The lawyer cannot explain how Apolon Giorgadze managed to injure himself because sharp things are not allowed in prison.

The prisoner serves his sentence in Ortachala jail N 1. According to the first verdict, he had to spend 14 years, 2 months and 7 days in prison.

Apolon Giorgadze was accused in the membership of criminal world for his participation in the revolt in Kutaisi prison in 2005 He was convicted under Article 223, Part I of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

According to the Public Defender’s office, the mother of the prisoner applied to the Human Right Centre to study and respond on the incident. Before that, she was told at the Public Defender’s office monitoring group could not visit the prisoner before Monday. At the same time, representatives of the PB told her their monitoring group has visited every prisoner who has applied to them for help.

According to the lawyer, Apolon Girogadze was offered freedom if he pleaded guilty, but he refused. Besides that, the chief prosecutor threatened him to find old cases which could make his charge graver. If his problem is not paid attention, Apolon Giorgadze is going to use more grave forms of protest.

The lawyer of the Human Rights Centre has already studied the case. Nino Andriashvili is going to visit the prisoner in this week.