Defense Minister Comments on Prison Riot

Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said on March 27 that the police and the Justice Ministry’s special purpose unit acted professionally while suppressing a riot early on Monday in Tbilisi’s 5th prison.

“Despite the fact that there are Defense Ministry barracks right next to this prison, there was no need to involve the army… I do not advise anyone – I mean these criminal bosses and bandits – to force the police to need the army’s help, because in this case we will not go there with shields and automatic rifles like the police do,” Okruashvili told reporters after an emergency session of the National Security Council.

According to official reports, seven inmates died and 22 others were wounded as a result of a clash with the police special unit during the riot, which, as officials say, aimed at a mass jailbreak from the prison, which houses at least 4,000 inmates.