20/09/2012 Monitoring
Strasbourg, 20.09.2012 - The monitoring co-rapporteurs for Georgia of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Michael Aastrup Jensen (Denmark, ALDE) and Boriss Cilevics (Latvia, SOC), have expressed their shock at the videos that have surfaced in Georgia showing prisoners being abused and tortured by prison guards.
"Such practices are unacceptable in a Council of Europe member State, therefore we welcome the swift reaction of the authorities. We expect that the authorities will now conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into these abuses, as well as into the structural question of how they could take place despite warnings from such respectable institutions as the Georgian Human Rights Defender," they said. "All perpetrators, including those that have abetted or condoned such crimes, should be punished to the fullest extent of the law," they added.
The co-rapporteurs intend to return to Georgia in the framework of the ongoing monitoring procedure for the country once the parliamentary elections are over.