Archil Kbilashvili on human rights and committed crimes
By Keti Arjevanidze
Tuesday, February 19
“More than 700 people have died in prisons between the years 2005-2012,” Prosecutor General Archil Kbilashvili said on February 18. He said the real causes of death are being studied now, but as a preliminary outline, the majority of them did not die by natural causes.
The General Prosecutor said the facts will be revealed in March and promised that afterwards the judicial system will give such a legal assessment that it will be a “new word” in the Georgian judicial system. “A system of state crime was detected,” Kbilashvili added.
Kbilashvili also spoke about the cases that are in the Prosecutor’s Office waiting for a decision. He recollected the case of the death of Robakidze and Girgvliani and assured that every episode related to Girgvliani’s death were fully falsified.
Kbilashvili also said that soon society will hear about the situation in the prisons. He said that the Prosecutor’s Office with the help of the Prison Ministry took the testimonies of 2, 000 inmates, speaking about facts of beating, torture and inhumane treatment in 18 different prisons. He stressed that simultaneously the research is on to determine the real causes of death in prisons.
He said the Prosecutors Office has set three goals: to investigate crimes committed against human rights and freedom, financial crimes as well as well-known crimes. He also stressed that progress in the investigation cases of human rights violation is underway.
Kbilashvili also touched upon the issue of financial crimes promising to soon reveal the news about spending millions from the state budget.
According to Kbilashvili from November 1 to January 31, more then 18, 500 complaints were filed in the Prosecutor’s Office. During this period, more than 100 public servants were called to account.
Meanwhile, photo reporters Natia Gedenidze, Giorgi Abdaladze, Irakli Gedenidze and Zurab Kurtsikidze, have called on General Prosecutor to re-investigate their case.
“We were accused of espionage by the previous government without any grounds. We did not have any chance to prove our innocence despite our will. Today the time has come when justice should prevail,” the photo reporters’ address says.
In the 10-page address, the photo-reporters talk in details about how they were detained and what kind of pressure was placed on them.