National Preventive Mechanism timely manner. At the same time, he calls the Penitentiary Department to suspend the authority of all the senior officials who worked at Establishment No. 8 at the time when the crime was committed and continue to work in the system. We believe that such actions are committed with the tacit consent of senior officials of the establishment, which must also make the senior officials themselves liable for them. It should be noted that, in most cases, investigatory bodies only launched formal investigations into facts of alleged inhuman and/or degrading treatment that we informed them about, and, apart from a few exceptional cases, the aforementioned facts were never followed by proper response, which, to some extent, served to encourage similar crimes”.  Starting from September 18th, 2012 Public Defender’s Office operates a hotline for members of prisoners’ families. In accordance with the calls we received, we have already checked the condition of dozens of convicts and given information to the corresponding persons. On September 19th, 2012 the Special Preventive Group continued monitoring of Zugdidi N8, Batumi N3, Kutaisi N2 and N18 medical establishments. By that time media outlets issued information according to which the windows of prisoners’ cells were closed up. In response to this and based on the results of the monitoring, Public Defender issued a statement saying that this information did not correspond with the truth and called on every citizen and concerned person to keep quiet in this extraordinary situation, so that the penal establishments would not get destabilized, which would, first of all, go against prisoners’ interests. On the same day, the Preventive Group visited Rustavi N16, N17, N5 women and N6 penal establishments, namely, all buildings, solitary and quarantine cells, as well as accommodation cells of the aforementioned establishments were examined, all inmates placed there were interviewed. By that time situation at the establishment has normalized, inmates did not refer to any type of violence; they had access to telephone and ad hoc visits by their relatives. On the same day, news agencies disseminated information that three beaten prisoners had been transferred to the Gori Military Hospital. In the night hours of September 19th, representatives of Public Defender’s Office went to the Gori Military Hospital to verify the information, where it was determined that the information did not correspond the truth and the hospital denied the fact of transfer of prisoners to the Military Hospital.   On September 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 2012 representatives of Public Defender’s Office were conducting continuous monitoring of different penal establishments on the territory of both Eastern and Western Georgia. During these days, Public Defender’s Office representatives visited establishments in Gldani (No. 8), Kutaisi (No. 2), Batumi (No. 3), Zugdidi (No. 4), Geguti (No. 14), Rustavi (No. 6, 16, and 17), Ksani (No. 15), and Tbilisi (No. 1), as well as Women Establishment No. 5 Monitoring Department of the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia continued daily monitoring up to the beginning of November. In those days special attention was paid to Gldani establishment N8 where many visits were carried out and large part of the prison population was visited. According to those prisoners, no pressure was exercised against them in the recent past. On September 22nd, the management of the penitentiary system started to distribute mattresses. A small part of prisoners in Establishment No. 8 was on a hunger strike; they protested against the facts of ill-treatment they had been subjected to in recent years and declared solidarity to prisoners who had become victims of ill-treatment.   For the same reasons, the group of 11 prisoners went on a hunger strike in penitentiary establishment No. 3 in Batumi. A group of convicts also declared a hunger strike in the Rustavi establishment No. 17, though they emphasized that this measure did not relate to the treatment towards them and was not directed against the administration and employees of the establishment, and did not have a political character. A small part of convicts in establishment No. 15 in Ksani and establishment No. 6 in Rustavi also went on hunger strike. The prisoners in all the aforementioned establishments emphasized serious facts of ill-treatment that had taken place in the past and handed collective applications and complaints to Public Defender’s representatives, demanding relevant reaction. Public Defender’s Office started to study these applications immediately. It should be noted that in all the aforementioned cases the prisoners noted that treatment towards them had sharply improved during the recent days and expressed satisfaction with this fact, though they also demanded the punishment of those responsible for past ill-treatment. www.ombudsman.ge NPM Report