Monitoring of agencies subordinated to the Georgian Interior Ministry POLICE During the monitoring held in police stations and departments journals of registration of detained persons and persons transferred to temporary detention isolators were examined. We shall note that in some of these cases, the abovementioned journals were not appropriately completed. As an example we may cite certain journals that do not provide information on the fate of a detained, at what time exactly the person was detained, in some cases numeration, time of incarceration into the isolator are mixed up , etc. As a result of the monitoring conducted in the first half of the year 2012 it became apparent that two registry books, instead of one, were kept in Tkibuli District Department of the Interior Ministry. Based on the above, on September 13th, 2012 an address and documentation depicting violations recorded by the members of the Prevention Group was sent to the Head of the General Inspections of the Ministry of Interior by Public Defender’s Office. According to the reply received from the General Inspection of the Ministry of Interior on March 25th, 2013, we were informed that on September 13th, 2012, on the basis of the letter sent from Public Defender’s Office, official inspections were carried out. The result was that a recommendation letter was used towards 10 workers of the Interior Ministry, 5 workers were subjected to disciplinary measure-reprimand, while 7 workers were given warning. During the inspection conducted in the second half of 2012 violations were again recorded in some police stations and departments, on reaction to whicha letter was sent from Public Defender’s Office addressed to the General Inspections of the Interior Ministry. According to answer N533862, an internal inspection was currently under way in the General Inspection of the Interior Ministry, results of which will be additionally communicated to us. As a result of the winter monitoring it was revealed that the large part of the citizens being arrested under Article 45 of the Georgian Code of Administrative Offences, were not found guilty in drug consumption. In December 2012 arrest of persons under Article 45 of the Georgian Code of Administrative Offences in regions surpassed all reasonableness. When studying registry journals of persons detained in the regions it seems that majority of men living in the regions were detained on the ground of the aforementioned article. We shall note that according to the second section of Article 45 of the Georgian Code of Administrative Offences, “a policeman to present a person toward whom there is a grounded doubt of illegal acquisition or keeping small amount of drugs or their use without doctor’s prescription to a suitably authorized by the Georgian Interior Ministry”. As the conducted monitoring revealed “grounded doubt”, in most cases, is not justified and does not even exist. According to policemen’s verbal explanations, the above practice represents prevention of the drug crime. Though, in our opinion, it may be also assessed as a violation of Article 5 www.ombudsman.ge NPM Report