We can cite number of examples when representatives of law enforcement have committed harsh violations of human rights.
27 years old Giorgi Shiukashvili criminalized and blamed for burglary was so brutally tortured using different methods that he finally "confessed" that he had stolen 10 cars. As a result of this torture Shiukashvili became a handicapped. During the preliminary investigation Shiukashvili was asking for medical expertise but his request was ignored by the Prosecutor General's Office and he was given a chance for expert's examination only in 5 months after the case was transferred to the court. But it was already late because the medical forensic expertise was unable to establish the exact date when the traumas were received. Shiukashvili was released directly from the courthouse after 11 months of detention and managed to sue his abusers. Despite the fact that he managed to recognize the torturers they were not punished because of the "lack of evidence and witnesses". In edition to that Shiukashvili receives threats to stop to pursue the truth or they would stage another crime and put him in jail for good.
By the end of 1999 in the downtown Tbilisi 12 policemen beat up 40 years old driver Vashakmadze and his accompanying 35 years old Buadze so hard that the former died because of the injuries and the latter only miraculously survived after a serious cure. The case had a banal development the policeman and Vashakmadze started with a small quarrel and ended up with a serious fight, policemen called their counterparts for help, forced the citizens back in a car and took them to a deserted place and beat up to death. Despite the fact that survived Buachidze sued the policemen and recognized all of them only one policeman got convicted and is imprisoned for only year and a half.
In March 1999, 23 years old Ivan Kolbaya jumped from the sixth floor of Tbilisi's one Police Departments during an interrogation. He was accused of burglary. There are some reasons to belief that it was not a suicide and that Kolbaya was beaten up to death and then was thrown from the window. It is the more so important to mention that during last two years there were 6 cases of detainees jumping from the sixth floors of police departments or Ministry of Interior all during interrogations.
It is known that places of execution of punishments are soils were human violations flourish. For the time being (from January 2000) the penitential system is under the subordination of the Ministry of Justice. That is why we think time has come to discuss problems related to the different stages of deprivation of freedom to human being.
According to the 18th Article of Georgian Constitution:
This article is the basis for regulation of problems of human's freedom deprivation but it needs to be admitted that all paragraphs of this article are violated everyday. This has its own reasons: the majority of our law enforcement employees are not used to work in a transparent and rule of law environment. Main end of Georgian law enforcement is to make a suspect confess using all measures possible, at the same time the salaries of employees of law enforcement structures are 2-3 times below the living minimum and even these wages are delayed for months. Thus, the only source to earn money for them is to use their positions and tested old tricks and methods, variety of them:
a) Harsh detention of supposed wrongdoer or a victim assigned to this role.
b) Excesses during transportation of a detainee in institutions of internal affairs: demonstration of guns, threats and insult even if a detainee is not resisting.
c) Torture of detainees in the institutions of internal affairs -- psychological threat (we will arrest you, rape members of your family, etc.), physical abuse and torture, electric shock, poisonous gas or simply a bottle.
d) Getting "openhearted" confessions, after which a detainee is offered to sign the confession as a witness (if he pays certain amount of money, than he will survive but his real or alleged accomplices will get convicted), if a detainee refuses to pay a bribe than the confession is certified as a confession of a defendant.
e) Traces of torture are hidden by creating set of fraud documents claiming that a detainee showed resistance to the police during the detention, or fell, sometimes a detainee is even taken to the hospital were doctor examines him/her and finds number of injuries but the patient declares that he/she has no pretensions against his/her abuser.
f) A detainee is placed in camera of a preliminary detention in unbearable conditions and he/she is manipulated by different threats and abuses and is made to do whatever law enforcement wants him to do.
g) Formal way of reviewing torture complains: even if the examination is assigned by a prosecutor or a court the "examination" satisfies itself by interviewing the supposed abusers.
Law enforcement employees have their own classification of victims: if they find out that a detainee has not a single serious official to support him/her or he/she has been convicted of a crime at least once before than all methods for torture are put into use.