Amnesty International Report 1995 - Georgia

A group of 19 political prisoners was tried; the proceedings appeared to fall short of international standards for fair trials. One political prisoner was reportedly beaten. One other detainee was reported to have died following ill-treatment. At least eight people were executed after parliament lifted a moratorium on executions. At least 11 people were sentenced to death, and at least 13 death sentences were commuted. In the disputed region of Abkhazia one person was reportedly detained on ethnic grounds; the fate of a number of others who "disappeared" in previous years remained unclear. At least six people were believed to be on death row at the end of the year in Abkhazia. After several weeks of confusion early in the year, the death of former president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, an opposition figure, was confirmed. A state of emergency was lifted from most of the country in February. Head of State Eduard Shevardnadze survived parliamentary moves for a vote of no confidence in September. The situation in the disputed region of Abkhazia (see Amnesty International Report 1994) became more stable through the year. The Georgian and Abkhaz sides agreed a cease-fire and disengagement of forces in May, and Russian troops were deployed in the area as peace-keepers the following month. Under an earlier agreement, a few of the estimated 250,000 people displaced by the fighting began to return to Abkhazia in October. In May Georgia acceded to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as well as to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights together with its (First) Optional Protocol. The country acceded to the UN Convention against Torture in October. Nineteen men, many of them supporters of former president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, were on trial on charges ranging from illegal arms possession to murder and terrorism. The trial appeared to fall short of international standards. Many of the men reported that they were not informed of the charges against them at the time of their arrest in 1992 and that access to a lawyer of their own choice had been periodically denied. The trial judge was reported to have denied defendants access to materials on the case, and in at least one instance to have denied a defence lawyer access to such materials. No confessions were excluded, despite allegations that they had been obtained under duress in pre-trial detention. Forms of torture described by defendants from that time included hanging upside-down, scalding with boiling water and systematic beatings resulting in fractured bones. Most allegations of ill-treatment dated from before the trial opened in October 1993, although one defendant, Viktor Domukhovsky, reported that he had been beaten on 13 August by special police officers who entered his cell demanding notes he had made of the trial. Many of the defendants suffered illness as a result of their conditions of detention; they were held in overcrowded, pest-ridden and insanitary cells. Medical attention was reportedly arbitrary and inadequate. One man died after reportedly being beaten by the police. In July Roin Kochishvili from the village of Kurta, Tskhinvali district, was said to have died after being beaten by police officers who had detained him and several friends on suspicion of driving a stolen car. In March parliament lifted a two-year moratorium on executions, and eight men had been executed by August. They included Suliko Chikhladze, who had been sentenced to death for murder in February. He and five others of the eight executed had been tried by the Supreme Court, and had no possibility of appeal. At least 11 death sentences were passed in the first half of the year. Thirteen death sentences were commuted in August. At least one person was reported to have been detained on ethnic grounds in the disputed region of Abkhazia. Madlena Japaridze, aged 67, an ethnic Georgian, was said to have been visited on 8 July by an Abkhazian soldier who accused her of associating with other Georgians. The next day he and four other soldiers reportedly returned and took her away. Another family had moved into her apartment by that evening. Her whereabouts were still unclear at the end of the year. The fate of others said to have "disappeared" in previous years during the conflict over Abkhazia also remained unresolved. They included at least seven non-Georgians said to have been detained on ethnic grounds in Sukhumi by Georgian forces in late 1992, and dozens of Georgians reportedly detained by Abkhazian forces after they recaptured Sukhumi in September 1993. In January the Abkhazian procurator reported that there were five or six people on death row in the disputed area, all convicted of murder, and that there was no specific body at that time to review petitions for clemency. Amnesty International sought further information on people reportedly detained solely on ethnic grounds in the Abkhazian conflict, and urged both sides to account for the whereabouts of those said to have "disappeared". Amnesty International urged the authorities to ensure that Viktor Domukhovsky and his co-defendants received a fair trial in line with international standards. The organization also urged a comprehensive, prompt and impartial investigation into all allegations of ill-treatment, with the results made public and any perpetrators identified brought to justice. Amnesty International expressed regret at the resumption of executions and urged that all pending death sentences be commuted. The organization also urged that immediate steps be taken to ensure that all those sentenced to death had the right to appeal to a court of higher jurisdiction, and to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence.