Interior Minister, Chief Prosecutor Vow to Focus on Human Rights

At a joint news briefing on October 18 Georgian Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili and Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili said that more attention will be paid to eradicating human rights abuses within the law agencies.
 
?During the first stage, law enforcement agencies aimed at tackling corruption and confiscating illegally acquired possessions [by officials]. Now, we should pay more attention to the protection of human rights,? Zurab Adeishvili said.
 
According to Zurab Adeishvili, monitoring groups will be set up at the Public Defender?s Office to permanently control the activities of the law-enforcement agencies. ?The prosecutor?s office has already brought several charges against facts of torture [of suspects] in the preliminary detention centers,? the Prosecutor General said.
 
?We fulfill the instruction of the President of Georgia. Our joint efforts are directed towards protection of human rights,? Irakli Okruashvili said.

According to Georgian human rights groups, the number of cases of torture in the preliminary detention centers has increased in 2004 compared to last year.