Georgian lawyers have to wait in queues for hours and often all day long in order to see prisoners being under their defense. Lawyers have had to stand in endless queues since the order #89 issued on June10 by the Minister of Correction and legal Assistance of Georgia Khatuna Kalmakhelidze. According to the order, a defender/lawyer can meet one guilty person/ prisoner being under his/her defense in the Ministry of Correction and Legal Assistance of Georgia for one visit.

Presa.ge talked with the lawyers standing in the queue in the 8th prison of Gldani and also with the head of Bremen Lawyer Court Eric Ioster who came to #8 prison of Gldani together with Zaza Khatiashvili- head of Georgian Lawyer Association. Here, one of the very popular lawyers told us the facts about the existing situation in prison described by the defendant. Presa.ge does not say the name of a lawyer for good reason, for which it apologizes the reader:

“After two o’clock at night, when the lights are turned off they came up to prisoners, , to beat them hard and not to be heard voices outside. The newly assigned director of the prison, Alexander Mukhadze, together with special forced group ( about 100 men in escort)comes to prisoners; They are beaten; in so called quarantine there are pools of blood. The prisoners say that as it seems they drink something before entering their room because the process of beating gives them so much delight that then they stand and laugh. I do not know how long it can last. I was informed by the prisoner that for that moment they confined Giorgi Vatikadze in 20 days’ punishment cell who was so beaten that his face was ripped off”. 

The office of public defender is fulfilling monitoring in prisons. Presa.ge got interested if they had any information about this concrete fact. We contacted the Department of Public Affairs of Public Defender, where we were told that they would investigate things in place and make comments only after it.  

Lawyers are concerned as owing to endless standing in queues they can not defend prisoners’ rights. They are now still fighting for defense of their rights in fact. The lawyer Jumber Lezhava was standing in a queue of about 200 people when we asked him to make a comment for a reader of presa.ge:

“What now happens here is a torture of a lawyer intended beforehand not to provide judicial defense of a prisoner. During the day, after so much noise and lots of talks, even if a lawyer could reach inside, how can he defense a prisoner’s rights?! Now, you see it! Here are 3 windows. Members of a prisoner, state prosecutors and lawyers together stand in this small room. This is a riot in a pleasure garden in Misha Saakashvili’s conditions.

The lawyer Vladimir Tabaghua calls the #89 order of Khatuna Kalmakhelidze a legal act against lawyers: “This is an order given by the against law and masked form. This order has been appealed but no one has paid any attention to it yet. We must make a rebellion to decide what to do in order to settle this problem!

Vazha Mosiashvili, a lawyer: “ We lose all day here to see one prisoner. In order to see the other prisoner you must leave, stand in the queue again, take a pass and as a result you must be examined again and then you can either speak to your defendant or not. All this plays on work and nerves….. Look, what happens. People come at five in the morning to be registered. Entry begins at ten o’clock.”

We had to talk with lawyers in the terrible noise, in narrowness. As they told us, the eighth prison was not an exception as per the queues. The same situation appears at all prisons.  

Lawyer Kethy Bekauri: “Resulting from this reality, a lawyer has to defend oneself in fact and then must defend the interests of an accused, guilty or sentenced person. All this happens artificially: Saakashvili and his party do it because they do not need to have a strong team of lawyers in Georgia.  

A lawyer Irma Shalamberidze took her place in a queue for the second time in our presence – “Today in the morning when I came here it was 20 minutes to nine and I was 30th in a queue. Now it is five minutes past twelve and I should take my place for the second time to see the other prisoner”.

Marika Svanidze, a lawyer: “There has been an agreement that the form of deprivation measures should have been replaced by non-imprisonment; The validation period expires. Saturday and Sunday are deliberately coincided; Without the consent of a prisoner we have no right to appeal. You see, I have to stand in such a queue and perhaps I will fail to enter as in two hours’ time the validation period will be expired and my turn will not come in two hours”.

Eric Ioster- head of Bremen lawyers chamber has been in Georgia for about a week and he is getting informed with the current situation created around the lawyers.
As the head of Georgian Lawyer Association Zaza Khatiashvili said that after Erik Ioster heard from several tens of lawyers about the terrible conditions in which Georgian lawyers work and how they are oppressed, he decided to see everything with his eyes himself as much he could. 

Erik Iosteri : “It is a general European standard that any lawyer should immediately meet the defendant. I see that this standard is absolutely ignored here. I have come here to see what happens. It is clear that when I come back, I will say all about it in European organizations. It will be difficult to succeed but in the end we will get a result as a rule.”

As Zaza Khatiashvili told us that #89 order issued by Khatuna Kalmakhelidze on June 10 has been appealed by the administrative charge in Georgian power because lawyers in fact could not defend their defendants. Now they are waiting for a response.