SITUATION IN PENITENTIARY INSTITUTIONS behavior and he would then have to answer to these angry prisoners. According to I.M., he then inflicted injuries on his throat. He said he did not feel secure. The Office of the Public Defender forwarded the prisoner’s explanations to the Chief Prosecution Office for their response. With their Letter No. 13/43210 dated 23 April 2013, the Prosecution Office replied that the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Corrections opened investigation into Criminal Case No. 0732220413003 under Article 333 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (exceeding official power). In their applications to the Public Defender, prisoners have been complaining about unnecessary and disproportional use of force by the Penitentiary Department’s representatives against prisoners. According to a standard established by the European Court of Human Rights, any recourse to physical force in respect of a person deprived of his liberty, which has not been made strictly necessary by his own conduct diminishes human dignity and is an infringement of the right set forth in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.4 In the reporting period, prisoners were often referring to use of physical force on the part of prison administrations even when they showed no resistance to the demands of prison officials. Moreover, according to prisoners’ reports, the use of force was usually preceded by administrations’ oral orders to behave in a certain way. Such practice seems to be an established trend when prisoners are transferred from one institution to another. The case concerning I.F., G.K., and others Through November – December 2013, the Public Defender received numerous applications, including collective applications, from convicted prisoners of the Penitentiary Institution No. 19 (Center for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of TB Patients). The prisoners were complaining of ill-treatment administered by prison officials. Pursuant to the results of a monitoring visit carried out on 23 December 2013 within the framework of the National Preventive Mechanism to the Penitentiary Institution No. 19, I.F., G.K., and others – convicted prisoners of the same institution, were allegedly subjected to physical and verbal abuse as well as disproportional use of force. According to the prisoners, the unlawful treatment was implemented by the Chief of Security Unit and other administration officials of the Penitentiary Institution No. 19 who especially aggressive during a transfer of convicted prisoners to other prisons. The Public Defender’s trustees also met and conversed with I.F., a prisoner transferred from Institution No. 19 to Institution No. 6, and G.K., a prisoner transferred from Institution No. 19 to Institution No. 8. As the prisoners stated to us, on 18 December 2013, they were told to appear in the administrative building. On the stairs to the second floor of administrative building, they were met with by the Chief of Security Unit and some other person whom they did not know. According to the prisoners, it was at that moment that about 20 to 25 officials of the Institution entered the building who, acting on the instructions of the Chief of Security, made the prisoners put their hands on their backs and handcuffed them. The Chief of Security then started verbally insulting them. He pushed I.F. from the back; as a result, I.F. fell on the staircase with his face. The prison officials then lifted them with their hands and legs to take them to the prisoners’ transport vehicle. The Office of the Public Defender forwarded materials of the above case to the Chief Prosecution Office for their response. The Prosecution Office responded that they did not commence investigation and forwarded the materials back to the Penitentiary Department instead. The case concerning U.B. and A.M., juvenile prisoners Trustees of the Public Defender met and talked to U.B. and A.M., juvenile prisoners at the Penitentiary Institution No 8. 4 2013 As the prisoners stated to us, the prison officials used force against them without first demanding to behave in a certain way; in other words, the prisoners were subjected to use of force without rendering any resistance to the prison staff. Ribitsch v. Austria, Judgment of 4 December 1996, par. 38. NPM Report 5