Justice Minister: no human rights complaints in Georgian penitentiary submitted to ECHR since 2013

The European Court of Human Rights has not received  “a single complaint” about human rights violations at the Georgian penitentiary system since 2013, Georgian Minister of Justice Rati Bregadze said on Friday at a plenary session of the Georgian Parliament.

In comments to MPs, Bregadze highlighted prisoners rights in the system were “fully in line with European standards'' and had “clearly and significantly” improved compared to 2012. 

Despite the many successes that have been achieved and are clearly visible, […] it must be boldly said that we are always looking for problems within the system. We are far from believing that we are ideal, we have nothing to improve and yes, it was our decision to start working on the new detention code within the codification programme implemented by the Ministry of Justice,” the official told lawmakers.

The Minister noted both the Ministry of Justice and the Penitentiary Service were “not left out” of the ongoing processes in Ukraine, adding Ukrainian citizens in detention in Georgia had the opportunity to make calls back to their country, facilitated by Georgian authorities.

Bregadze also addressed a request of the opposition representatives for a transfer of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili abroad due to his health-related issues, explaining it was “possible” to provide “all medical procedures” relevant to diagnosis of his conditions domestically.