13:00, 12 April 2013

Former prison staff suspected of torture detained in Georgia

On April 11, two former employees of Jail No. 15 – Levan Lejava and Georgi Pardjanadze – were detained on charges of torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners. Two others – Dmitry Chkheidze and Shota Tolordava – have been put on the wanted list.

According to the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Georgia, on February 24, 2012, Shota Tolordava, the director of Jail No. 15; Levan Lejava, the head of the legal regime division; Georgi Pardjanadze, the head of the security division; and Dmitry Chkheidze, the head of the penitentiary division, beat a prisoner in the yard of the administrative building of the jail.

The GPO asserts that the prisoner was beaten, in particular, with a rubber truncheon, which was then used to rape him. At beating they also used the electric shock, the "InterPressNews" reports.

Based on the decision of the court, Lejava and Pardjanadze were detained; now the whereabouts of Chkheidze and Tolordava is being established, the "News-Georgia" reports.