The Public Defender of Georgia is echoing the statement released by the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia on October 10 regarding the terminationof the investigation into the alleged ill-treatment of citizen I.Kh. by police officers.

The investigation was launched on the basis of the Public Defender's proposal, according to which, there was suspicion that citizen I.Kh. was verbally and physically abused in the administrative building of the police department on February 16, 2016. As a result, I.Kh, suffered physical injuries, which was documented in the medical establishment on the same day.

The study of the investigation materials showed that no investigation was launched into the criminal case in a timely manner and that it was delayed for two weeks: the Public Defender appealed to the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia to launch an investigation on February 27, 2017, but it was launched on March 15, 2017. In addition, the lawyer’s application was forwarded to the structural units of the Prosecutor's Office. According to the case materials, the application was sent to the Vake-Saburtalo District Prosecutor on March 9, while on March 13, the application was sent to Tbilisi Prosecutor's Office.

The investigation failed to disperse the suspicion of high probability that I.Kh. suffered injuries in the police department, which was shown by the investigation materials. In particular, according to the investigation materials, I.Kh. entered the police department completely healthy, but left it for his house by a taxi, called for an ambulance and was hospitalized. The chronology of these developments was determined by the reasonable calculation of time – the time needed for reaching his house, calling for an ambulance and hospitalizing him. The investigation does not have any evidence indicating directly or indirectly any other source of injuries or raising suspicion that I.Kh. was injured after he left the police department.

I.Kh.’s injuries were recorded in the medical documents; the police officers, who had direct contact with him, were questioned; the footage of the surveillance cameras of the police department’s internal and external perimeter was obtained, though the footage does not make it possible to determine whether I.Kh. had injuries when leaving the administrative building of the police department. As for the fact that the police officers denied the verbal or physical abuse of I.Kh., it cannot either rule out or prove the alleged ill-treatment.

The Public Defender considers that no timely or effective investigation was carried out in the given criminal case and its termination was groundless - the investigation could not rule out the suspicion that the person was beaten in the police premises, nevertheless it was terminated.

Based on the abovementioned deficiencies, it is necessary the Prosecutor's Office to resume and conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged ill-treatment of I.Kh. by police officers.