Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns in the Region

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Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns in the Region: July – December 2005

GEORGIA

This country entry has been extracted from a forthcoming Amnesty International (AI) report, Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's Concerns in the Region: July – December 2005 (AI Index: EUR 01/007/2006), to be issued in July 2006. Anyone wanting further information on other AI concerns in Europe and Central Asia should consult the full document.

Torture and ill-treatment
UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

In his September 2005 report covering his mission to Georgia in February 2005 the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment concluded that “torture persists in Georgia, perpetuated primarily by a culture of impunity”. He also noted certain positive steps taken by the authorities to combat torture and ill-treatment, but pointed out that “credible and reliable allegations of torture and ill-treatment continued to be received”. Among other things, he recommended to the authorities of Georgia that “[j]udges and prosecutors [should] routinely ask persons brought from police custody how they have been treated and, even in the absence of a formal complaint from the defendant, order an independent medical examination”; that “[a]ny public official indicted for abuse or torture, including prosecutors and judges implicated in colluding in torture or ignoring evidence, be immediately suspended from duty pending trial, and prosecuted”; and that “[l]aw enforcement recruits undergo an extensive and thorough training curriculum that incorporates human rights education throughout and that includes training in effective interrogation techniques and the proper use of police equipment, and that existing officers receive continuing education”.
AI’s report Georgia: Torture and ill-treatment – still a concern after the “Rose Revolution”.

On 23 November AI published its report entitled Georgia: Torture and ill-treatment – still a concern after the “Rose Revolution” (AI Index: EUR 56/001/2005). The report highlighted a number of positive steps taken since the “Rose Revolution” in November 2003. These included the introduction of legal amendments, Georgia’s accession to the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture in August 2005, extensive monitoring activities of detention facilities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, conducted in particular by the office of the Public Defender of Georgia (Ombudsman), and the fact that several perpetrators of crimes amounting to torture or ill-treatment were serving prison terms handed down since the “Rose Revolution”.

 However, AI has continued to receive reports about torture and ill-treatment. According to information documented by AI in its report, many cases still do not come to light because police cover up their crimes and detainees are often afraid to complain or identify the perpetrators for fear of repercussions.

Impunity for torture or other ill-treatment remains a problem, with procurators failing to open investigations into all potential torture and ill-treatment cases in a systematic manner. In dozens of cases where the procuracy had opened investigations, the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Case examples featured in the report demonstrated that investigations into allegations of torture or ill-treatment were often not conducted in a prompt, impartial and independent manner. In addition, there were severe shortcomings in the implementation of legal safeguards aimed at preventing torture and ill-treatment.
 The report detailed how methods allegedly used to torture or ill-treat detainees since the “Rose Revolution” included electric shocks; putting plastic bags over the head of a detainee; suspending a detainee from a pole between two tables; cigarette and candle burns; placing the barrel of a gun in a detainee’s mouth threatening to shoot; threats to beat the detainee’s family; gagging the detainee with a piece of cloth to prevent them from shouting; beatings, including with truncheons and butts of guns, and kicking.

The report concluded with a range of recommendations by AI to the international community and the Georgian authorities in order to eradicate torture or other ill-treatment in the country. Key recommendations to the Georgian authorities included to oblige all police officers to wear visible and unique traceable identification numbers; to immediately suspend law enforcement officers who are placed under investigation for serious human rights violations pending the outcome of the disciplinary and judicial proceedings against them, and to pay special attention to ending torture and ill-treatment in the regions of Georgia outside the capital. AI also recommended that the authorities set up a body independent of the police, procuracy and the justice system to carry out a detailed review of investigations conducted by law enforcement officers into allegations of torture and ill-treatment and of judicial proceedings in such cases with the authority to present its findings, make recommendations to the relevant authorities, and have powers to issue a public report.

Individual cases involving allegations of torture or other ill-treatment
In the period under review AI received a number of cases in which torture or other ill-treatment were alleged.

For example, Malkhaz Talakvadze was detained on 2 September 2005 at about 5am after some 30 special unit police officers, some of whom were masked, broke into his house in Tskhantubo district near the town of Kutaisi. According to his lawyer Zurab Rostiashvili, police beat him, including with the butts of their guns, and he lost consciousness. According to Malkhaz Talakvadze, his wife, mother-in-law and little daughter were also beaten. Nugzar Topuridze, an independent forensic medical expert of the firm Veqtori, who examined Malkhaz Talakvadze’s wife Irma Kanteladze on 7 September, found many bruises on both shoulders. She complained about headaches and dizziness. According to the expert, the time period when the bruises were sustained – as established in the medical examination – was consistent with the allegations made by Irma Kanteladze. According to Zurab Rostiashvili, the judge ignored the allegations of ill-treatment raised by the lawyer at the remand hearing at Tbilisi city court. As of November Malkhaz Talakvadze was held in the investigation-isolation prison no. 1 in Tbilisi awaiting trial on charges of “illegal possession of drugs in particularly large quantities” (Article 260, part 3) and “illegal production or sale of weapons” (Article 236).

Concerns in the disputed region of Abkhazia
The death penalty (update to AI Index: EUR 04/002/2004)
To AI’s knowledge, Abkhazia continued to observe a de facto moratorium on executions, but retained the death penalty and at the time of writing was believed to hold at least two people on death row.
In his September 2005 report on his visit to Georgia, including Abkhazia, in February 2005, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture called on the authorities of Abkhazia to abolish the death penalty. He also raised concern about the conditions on death row. According to the authorities, there were two prisoners on death row, both reportedly sentenced to death for premeditated, aggravated murder. On 20 February the Special Rapporteur visited them in the detention facility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sukhumi (referred to by the Georgians as Sukhumi).

According to the Special Rapporteur, one of the death row prisoners, Ms Voloshina, aged 50, who has been detained since 1994 and was sentenced to death in 1996, has been immobile due to illness for the last three years and has not received appropriate medical treatment for this condition. She was kept in a cell with 11 other women, who were either awaiting trial or had been sentenced to prison terms of between one month and 10 years. The cell was dark and poorly ventilated. There were allegations that it was at times overcrowded with up to 20 detainees in a cell designed for 12. The Special Rapporteur reported that the detainees had no access to a radio or telephone and no possibility of sending or receiving letters.

Mr Khaghba, the other death row prisoner, was in a cell on his own which the Special Rapporteur described as dimly lit and poorly ventilated. Although the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs assured the Special Rapporteur that the prisoner could take physical exercise every day except on Sundays and have regular family visits, according to the report “it was clear that the cell had not been opened for a very long time”. The Special Rapporteur reported that “once the guard unlocked the padlock to the heavy black steel door, he did not know how to open it. It finally took at least three guards approximately five minutes to slide the security bolt across and pry the door open.” The Special Rapporteur’s report did not indicate how long Mr Khaghba had been on death row.
 AI believes that Ms Voloshina – and possibly also Mr Khaghba – has been kept in a state of continued uncertainty as to her ultimate fate and in harsh prison conditions for many years. Such a situation amounts to cruel and inhuman treatment.