Justice Minister wants ex-Georgian leaders in a more secured prison

Georgia’s Justice Minister has called for the country’s ex-PM and Defence Minister to be moved to a more secure prison facility.

Tea Tsulukiani said it was a mistake to place former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili and ex-Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia in a prison where surveillance camera recordings were not being stored permanently.

The Minister has made this statement live on air while speaking on the TV program at the Rustavi 2 channel today. She said when a detained person offered facts, their statement must be checked immediately. 

"I this case I am worried with the objective reality that VanoMerabishvili and BachoAkhalaia are detained in a prison where the cameras are not saving video recordings until the detained person is there. "We made a mistake when we placed Merabishvili and Akhalaia in the Matrosov Prison and not in another, where there would have been higher security measures and cameras developed by themselves while being in power,” Tsulukiani said.

At the same time, Tsulukiani excluded the fact that the former Prosecutor General would do what Merabishvilihad claimed.

In December last year, when Merabishvili was in pre-trial detention, he said he was blackmailed while in prison by ex-Chief Prosecutor OtarPartskhaladze (who resigned citing unrelated reasons on December 30). Merabishvili said he was taken out of his prison cell with his head covered by his own jacket and was taken to an unknown location, which he suspected was a department of the penitentiary system.  

"Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance checked not only the video recordings but the witnesses as well. I have the information that Merabishvili first denied questioning but agreed later. A number of witnesses have been questioned and they said Merabishvili’s statement was absurd,” Tsulukiani said.

In order to avoid such "absurdist and destructive” statements in future, the Justice Minister recommended to place Merabishvili and Akhalaia in a more secured prison where recordings would be stored for a long time.