Public Defender Slams New Defense Minister

An outgoing Public Defender, Sozar Subari, said there were enough grounds for launching criminal case against new Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia for his alleged wrongdoings while serving as chief of prison system.

“Since 2006 Akhalaia has shown himself as a person who did not care about law and who was violating law. Cases, which are included in my reports [on human rights record], are enough to initiate criminal proceedings against Akhalaia,” Sozar Subari told the Georgian daily Rezonansi.

In his capacity of chief of prison system Akhalaia was a target of criticism by the opposition, some human rights groups and the Public Defender; in particular, he was blamed by opponents for inspiring unrests in the Tbilisi prison in 2006, which was followed by riot police crackdown which led to death of seven inmates.

The Public Defender’s report for the first half of 2008 on human rights record in the country, describes the case involving pressure on a businessman, Kibar Khalvashi, a close friend of ex-defense minister Irakli Okruashvili. According to the report, Akhalaia, then chief of the prison system, and his two aides were directly involved in pressuring and intimidation of Khalvashi and his business partners with a purpose to fabricate case against Okruashvili in 2007.