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Wednesday,
August 15,
2007, #155 (1422)
By Anna Kamushadze At least twelve young inmates and one guard were taken to the hospital after a riot broke out in a Tbilisi juvenile detention facility on August 13. The disturbance began at nine in the evening at the Avchala Correctional Colony and went on for three hours. Frantic parents, desperate for information, rushed to the scene as the news spread. The riot began with inmates attacking each other, according to Justice Ministry spokeswoman Salome Makhradze, and escalated as they beat a guard who tried to intervene. Some parents and opposition politicians, however, claimed that prison authorities were responsible for sparking the riot. A number of the hospitalized inmates reportedly had slit their wrists with glass from broken windows in fear of the police special forces which were dispatched to the facility. Seven inmates were killed when police special forces suppressed a March 2006 prison riot. Deputy Human Rights Ombudsman Giga Giorgadze inspected the prison hours after the incident, agreeing that some of the inmates' injuries were self-inflicted. Doctors treating
the injured said none of the youths were seriously injured. All were
due to be discharged by last night. "The children had a quarrel with each other but after some time they calmed down. They did not have special demands…they calmed down themselves," Makharadze told journalists. Parents instead pointed the blame at facility director Ramaz Kokoshadze and Prison Department head Bacho Akhalaia, though it was unclear what direct involvement Akhalaia could have had. They were joined outside the prison by opposition figures Jondi Baghaturia of the political movement Georgian Troupe and Tine Khidasheli of the Republican Party. Baghaturia alleged the fights were due to mistreatment by facility administration. "There was no quarrel between the children. They confronted representatives from the administration because they insulted the children. We won't let this matter go. We will file a case against Akhalaia and everyone who touched these youths will have to answer for it," Baghaturia told Rustavi 2. Georgia's prisons, particularly its juvenile justice system, have come under regular criticism from human rights groups. All was calm by
the end of the night. The next day, prison authorities announced that
100 inmates would be transferred to another prison in Rustavi, apparently
to prevent future problems. |
Riot
at juvenile prison sends 13 to the hospital
