The Special Penitentiary Service issued a statement on July 11 regarding the beating of Giorgi Bachiashvili. According to the agency, the director of Prison No. 8, as well as the deputy head of the Special Penitentiary Service, have resigned.
The full statement reads:
“The General Inspection of the Ministry of Justice is conducting an investigation into the incident that occurred on July 11 of this year, involving a physical altercation between inmate K. Metreveli and inmate G. Bachiashvili in a cell at Facility No. 8 of the Special Penitentiary Service, under Article 126, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.
During the ongoing investigation, possible instances of disciplinary misconduct by certain employees of the penitentiary service were identified. Based on a request from the General Inspection of the Ministry of Justice, disciplinary proceedings were launched on August 19 of this year within the Monitoring Department of the Special Penitentiary Service.
As part of the disciplinary proceedings, various individuals were questioned, including the head of Facility No. 8, employees of the facility and the Special Penitentiary Service, inmate G. Bachiashvili, inmate K. Metreveli, as well as other prisoners who may have had any form of contact with inmate Bachiashvili.
The inspection revealed circumstances that at this stage give reasonable grounds to suspect that certain employees of the Special Penitentiary Service, inmates under their influence, and inmate G. Bachiashvili may have acted in collusion.
Additionally, questions arise regarding the motivation behind placing K. Metreveli in the same cell with G. Bachiashvili.
Taking into account the circumstances identified during the disciplinary proceedings, as well as the fact that, despite the ongoing investigation and internal inspection, the heads of the institutions continued to hold their positions, which may have hindered the establishment of objective truth in the case, the head of Penitentiary Facility No. 8, D. Gogoberishvili, and the Deputy Director of the Penitentiary Department of the Special Penitentiary Service, G. Khemoklidze, have resigned.”
