Based on media reports, the Public Defender, on his own initiative, started to study the case of pushing the 22-year-old young man, D.S., to committing suicide in the village of Dafnari, Samtredia municipality.

According to the reports, violence was allegedly used against D.S. in order to force him to cooperate with the police in order to reveal the drug-related crime.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, they accused district inspector-investigator G.T. of abuse of power and pushing a person to committing suicide under subparagraph “b” of part 3 of article 333 and article 115 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. The accused does not cooperate with the investigation and if he does not arrive at the agency, he will be declared wanted.

The Public Defender of Georgia calls on the Prosecutor's Office to use all available legal means to establish the truth in the case and to provide convincing answers to all questions regarding the case, including how it happened that the police officer, who was accused by the person who committed suicide of pushing him to the suicide, has absconded; or what did the Prosecutor's Office do to prevent the escape of the person. It is important to find out who helped the defendant to abscond.

The incident also raised a reasonable doubt that police activity against drug-related crime is repressive, is based on violation of human rights and infringement of privacy, and is established as a common practice.

It is obvious that police activity without the operative-search actions loses sense, but it should not be carried out at the expense of violation of higher value - human rights. Cooperation with law enforcement authorities for operative-search activities must be voluntary. The human rights law forbids the authorized persons from conducting the kind of operative-search actions that pose a threat to human life, health, property, honor and dignity, or that is related to cheating, blackmail, compulsion, crime or other illegal action.

Therefore, timely and thorough investigation of the mentioned case is extremely important not only for establishing the death cause of D.S. and the alleged connection of a police officer to it, but also for fight against the systemic crime of similar nature.

It is also equally important to study the methods applied in the police system for revealing the drug-related crime and to take preventive measures in order to minimize the cases of compulsion, abuse of authority, illegal confinement, threats of torture and other illegal actions.

The Public Defender has repeatedly called on the relevant agencies to abandon the established practice of repressive drug policy and make the policy more humane.