were identified in 27 out of 62 police agencies visited by the Special Prevention Group.332 In fact, in some
cases the date / time of the person's detention cannot be determined, the date / time of the detainee's
departure from the police station is unclear, time of transfer at the temporary detention isolator precedes
the time of detention, and the time of arrival at the police station precedes the time of detention; the
date and time of taking the detainee to the temporary detention isolator or the time of detainee’s release
are not specified in some cases. It should be further noted that in those police stations where the Special
Prevention Group carried out preventive visits in 2019, in 2020 the maintenance of logbooks has improved
to some extent.
According to the Special Prevention Group, the logbooks are filled in accordance with the data indicated
in the detention report, after the completion of such report. This can be easily identified by comparing
the information included in the columns of the logbooks with the information in the detention report,
where even the wording is identical. The Special Prevention Group has witnessed in 2 police stations a
case when a detainee was present at the police station although he/she was not registered in the logbook
for detainees. In one of these cases, a police officer himself confirmed that he would have registered the
detainee after the completion of the detention report. According to the observed practice, mainly the
following picture emerges in terms of document maintenance: the detention report is not filled in at the
place of detention. The detainee is taken to a police station, where his body is not examined while entering
or leaving the station by the on-duty inspector to detect injuries. Afterwards, a detention report is filled
in, during which the police officers describe the injuries depicted on the detainee's body. The detention
report is then handed over to the on-duty inspector of the police station for copying the data to the
logbook for detainees. Therefore, the columns in the logbook for detainees, which should describe injuries
on the detainee's body, both when entering and leaving the facility, lose their function and do not ensure
protection from ill-treatment.
Inviting a person for an interview at the facility
Apart from the detainee, a person who is invited for an interview at a police station may be placed under
police control. Under Article 21 of the Organic Law of Georgia on Police, the police have the right to invite
a person to an interview at the police facility. From the legal point of view, appearance of the person
invited to an interview through this procedure as well as leaving the police station is formally voluntary.
The citizens invited under this procedure are not provided with procedural safeguards against illtreatment in case of abuse of power, pressure and physical violence inflicted against them by police.
Moreover, no document is drawn up when a person enters or leaves the police facility, which would have
made it possible to prove that the person indeed entered the police facility. According to the information
provided by the lawyers, it was still common practice in 2020 to “voluntarily” invite a person to the police
station and restricthis right of movement during this period. Hence, it can be said that this is a de facto
According to the information provided by the General Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, from
January 1, 2020 to November 15, 2020, 41 cases of filling the journals incompletely or incorrectly were revealed. Letter MIA
5 20 02723536 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia of November 20, 2020.
332
104
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