Kakabadse: TB patients added hunger-strikers in Kutaisi prison

As reported by Nana Kakabadze, the head of the NGO "Political Prisoners for Human Rights", several convicted tuberculosis (TB) patients were transferred from Ksani Colony to Kutaisi Prison, where inmates are holding a hunger strike.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Georgian prisons 32 convicts are holding a protest action in the form of a hunger strike. This was reported on August 28 by Archil Talakvadze, the Deputy Minister for Correction and Probation of Georgia.

Nana Kakabadze told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that convicted women are holding protest in their Rustavi Prison No. 5.

She added that the protesting prisoners expressed concern about the fact that in the evening on September 1, several inmates, sick with tuberculosis, were transferred from Ksani Colony to Kutaisi Prison.

In the opinion of Nana Kakabadze, this transfer of inmates was done illegally, because neither protesters' relatives nor advocates knew about it. Also, the above TB patients were brought to a closed institution, where they will not be able to get enough fresh air and the appropriate medical care, says the head of the NGO "Political Prisoners for Human Rights".

"We called to the Ministry of Corrections, where they failed to really explain anything; they said only that the transfer had to do with some information about the prepared rebellion," said Nana Kakabadze.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.