Protest actions against torture of prisoners in Georgia to be continued today

In the evening of September 19, in Tbilisi, the protest action at the state office building, organized in connection with the abuse of prisoners in the Gldani Prison, was finished. Today, the organizers of the action plan to continue the protest actions.

The next protest action is to be held at the building of the State Philharmonic on September 20, at 5:00 p.m. The organizers of the protest action believe that all those people, who today held rallies in different points of the capital, will attend the protest action together with them.

"Today, we leave the place, since we need to recover. Tomorrow, there should be a lot of us. Tomorrow, we will all come together, and, if you don't mind, we will spend the nights in front of the Philharmonic till October 1," the "Echo of Caucasus" quotes human rights defender Levan Chitadze, one of the organizers of the protest action.

It should be noted that on September 19, the capital of Georgia hosted several protest actions at once. Starting from 12:00 a.m., city residents protested in front of the building of the City Philharmonic. About 1000 protesters gathered at that place. The city residents came to the protest action with the slogans reading: "Let's Say No to Violence" and "Torturers".

Journalist Shorena Shaverdashvili, one of the organizers of the protest action, stated that the participants of the rally together with several NGOs prepared a petition to the authorities of the country.

"There should be a committee established to conduct investigation into all the facts among the top-ranking officials. Besides, the safety of witnesses and members of their families, who confirm and revealed the facts, should be ensured. The commission should investigate the issues, related to officials, the Ministers of Justice, Internal Affairs, Prosecutor, to reveal their guilt and to ensure that they bear political responsibility, since none of those facts had been investigated. We call on all international human rights organizations and the Georgian Ombudsman to continue monitoring Georgian prisons," Shorena Shaverdashvili read out some points from the petition.

By 3:00 p.m., students started a protest action at the first building of the Tbilisi State University. In total, the university yard was attended by about 2000 persons, standing with posters in Georgian and English languages.