17 convicts are on a hunger strike in the prison or Rustavi

17 convicts in Rustavi prison No 16, Georgia, are holding an action of protest in form of a hunger strike, 11 of them are ill with AIDS. The convicts are indignant at their prison conditions and the actions of prison administration. They also refuse to take medicines as a sign of protest.

According to a report of People’s Defender of Georgia, a letter with a demand to discharge the recently appointed Director of the prison Levan Aburdzhnia and 23 workmen of the penal facility whom they accuse of torture and humiliation was received by his office. Besides, the convicts complained that after appointment of the new director the prison inner regulations were significantly toughened.

On Thursday, November, 1, the Apparat of People’s Defender of Georgia appealed to the Ministry of Execution of Punishments demanding to respond to the situation in Rustavi prison No 16.

In their message the convicts state that there were threats from the Director that their custody terms would be prolonged and units of squad would be brought into the prison, “Novosti-Georgia” reports. Besides, according to the information the Apparat of People’s Defender received from the convicts, workmen discharged after the prison scandal when videos of torturing the convicts became public returned to work in the prison.