On December 2, 2013, Zaza Azariashvili, a former prisoner and victim of torture, lodged a complaint into the Chief Prosecutor's Office through the legal assistance from the Human Rights Center and demanded an investigation into the facts of torture to which he had been subjected while in prison. The charges had been brought against Tamaz Meladze and Alexander Mukhadze, former directors of the Penal Institution # 8 in Gldani, Tbilisi. Zaza Azariashvili is also a key witness in a former political prisoner Vakhtang Maisaia’s case investigating Maisaia’s torture and inhuman treatment.
After the Tbilisi Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into the cases dealing with the facts of Azariashvili’s and Maisaia’s torture, the Tskneti police chief Konstantine Pukhauri and his deputy Zaal Tabatadze have repeatedly harassed and verbally abused Zaza Azariashvili. They have been trying to coerce Zaza Azariashvili to withdraw his complaint from the prosecutor's office. On January 27, 2014, Konstantine Pukhauri and Zaal Tabatadze assaulted Zaza Azariashvili in his house, abusing him verbally and demanding from him to take his complaint back.
On February 25, 2014, Zaza Azariashvili was again assaulted in Pirosmani Street in Tskneti. The former prisoner was attacked by four men in civilian clothes and was mercilessly beaten up. The attackers told him that the reason of his beating was the testimony he made against Tamaz Meladze in the Prosecutor’s Office.
Our NGOs are addressing the investigative authorities with the call to promptly investigate the facts of Zaza Azariashvili’s illegal maltreatment and impose penalties prescribed by the Criminal Procedure Code to protect his safety.
The Human Rights Center
The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association
Transparency International Georgia
Article 42 of the Constitution
Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC)
