Rights defenders achieve closure of Tbilisi prison

Prison No. 7 in Gulua Street in Tbilisi has been closed at the demand of rights defenders. For twenty years of its existence, the prison failed to create normal custody conditions, Gela Nikoleishvili, a rights defender, has stated.

On July 2, Kakha Kakhishvili, the Georgian Minister for the Execution of Punishments and Probations, officially closed Prison No. 7 in Tbilisi, since it failed to meet international standards, the website of the ministry has reported.

"In all reports of the Ombudsperson and our international partners, this prison was mentioned as the worst one," the minister said.

The closure of Prison No. 7 will cause no overcrowding of other prisons in Georgia, said Gela Nikoleishvili, a member of the Georgian Bar Association and a representative of the human rights NGO Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights.

"This prison was initially made as a preliminary detention facility in the basement of the former building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). For the first time it was used as a prison for the long-term detention in the times of Shevardnadze, but during 20 years, they failed to create normal custody conditions in it," Mr Nikoleishvili told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 3, 2018 at 06:33 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.