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The Justice Ministry has denied speculations |
Georgian Justice Minister Kote Kemularia has come under fire from human rights groups in recent weeks over the suspected mistreatment of ailing inmates in the prisons and corruption associated with inmate healthcare.
The death of 24-year-old Nugzar Ksovreli, an inmate of the 1st Prison in Tbilisi, triggered a new wave of criticism against Kemularia. Nugzar Ksovreli died in the Republic Hospital on September 18. He was transferred there from the prison clinic on September 11, when human rights activists say it was too late to save his life. This is the second case of death of an inmate caused by the viral infection in less than a month. Kakhaber Shatirishvili, an inmate at the same prison, died on August 31.
The prison monitoring group, composed of various civil society organizations and set up under the President’s decree last August, says an ailing inmate has to pay at least USD 500 in bribes to the prison officials to to be transferred from the prison clinic to the hospital.
“The prisons are overcrowded. There are twice as many inmates in the cells, which are designed to home only 15 prisoners. The lumpsum budget was allocated by calculating 23 Lari [USD 12.7] to feed each inmate, but because the number of prisoners has increased, this sum in reality now amounts to only 14-15 Lari [about USD 8 per month per prisoner]. While for medical treatment, only 3 Tetri [less than USD 0.02] for each inmate is allocated,” Tea Tutberidze, chair of the 19-member prison monitoring group told Civil Georgia.
“Corruption makes the situation even worse. Even if an inmate is healthy but pays USD 500, or more, he can be transferred to the hospital, where conditions, of course, are much better than in cells,” she added.
Bacho Akhalaia, Deputy Public Defender, says his office also has some facts about corruption in the prison. “The mother of Nugzar Ksovreli said that she paid [a bribe] in exchange for moving her son to the hospital,” Akhalaia said.
“Minister Kemularia either does not care about what is going on in the penitentiary system, or is just a part of the corrupt system, which persists in the penitentiary,” Tea Tutberidze said.
The Justice Ministry has denied all corruption allegations and instead accused employees of the Public Defender’s Office, as well as members of the prison monitoring group, of being engaged “in corrupt deals.”
“A probe [carried out by the Justice Ministry] into the healthcare service of the penitentiary system revealed that healthy inmates were taken to the hospitals through the help of a member of the [prison] monitoring group – Mariam Jishkariani – and a representative of the Public Defender’s Office – Lana Galdava. The documents [available for the Justice Ministry] prove the participation of so called human rights activists in illegal and corrupt activities,” reads a statement issued by the Justice Ministry on September 16.
Marian Jishkariani, who the chairs non-governmental organization Empathia which monitors health condition of prisoners, plans to sue Justice Minister Kote Kemularia for slander. “I will definitely sue Mr. Kemularia and I also want to urge the President to dismiss Kote Kemularia,” Jishkariani said at a news conference on September 20.
Public Defender Sozar Subari also denied that his representative was engaged in the actions accused by the Justice Ministry.
Members of the prison monitoring group appealed the General Prosecutor’s Office on September 19 to launch an investigation into the reasons behind the death of the 24-year-old inmate.
This confrontation between the Justice Ministry and human rights activists has already triggered speculations that Justice Minister Kemularia plans to resign. But the Justice Ministry’s press office strongly denied these rumors on September 20.
Kote Kemularia, a lawyer, has already once served as the Minister Justice in the early 90s. Kemularia has been a close ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili and served as co-chairman of the ruling National Movement party. He was appointed as Georgia’s ambassador to Russia in early 2004 and then became Chairman of the Supreme Court in June, 2004. He took over the Justice Minister’s position in February, 2005.
