MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - The European Committee on the Prevention of Torture has reported on the ill-treatment of prisoners in Georgia.
The committee said the situation in a number of Georgian prisons, especially in Tbilisi and Rustavi, was disastrous, and that prisoners were kept in life-threatening conditions.
The committee referred to the "appalling material conditions, overcrowding, severe staff shortages, disproportionate use of force, and ill-treatment that could be considered to amount to torture."
The committee concluded that Georgia had failed to achieve real progress in reforming its penitentiary system and complying with the committee's 2002 recommendations.
The committee said that there had been a sharp increase in the number of inmates since November 2003, and this had exacerbated the appalling situation, particularly in Tbilisi.
The committee delegation, which visited a special ward at the Central Prison Hospital in Tbilisi observed that "a few of the [well-off] prisoners enjoyed living conditions which were strikingly better than those of the rest of the inmates and were even occasionally almost luxurious (e.g. high-quality bathrooms and kitchenettes, expensive furniture, new windows without bars, air-conditioning, satellite TV, etc.)."
