members/relatives about the detention.216 In addition to the above, the following also serve as
safeguards for the detainees: the obligation to register all the detainees transferred to police facilities,
the obligation to bring detainees before the court, the obligation to record certain procedures (audio
and video), including interrogations, etc. The assessment of the Special Preventive Group regarding the
practical realization of the above rights is given below:
Informing detainees of their rights - Under criminal procedure law, a person shall be informed of his/her
rights and the charges against him/her, in a language he/she understands. Interviews with the detainees
conducted by the Special Preventive Group showed that, in most cases, detainees were either not
informed of their rights at all, either during detention or before interrogation, or were only partially
informed. During interviews with the Special Preventive Group, lawyers also focused on this issue,
noting that detainees received information about their rights from them. The monitoring of police
departments and divisions conducted by the Special Preventive Group in 2019 made it clear that in
most police divisions and departments, posters were placed in shared workspaces and provided
information only about domestic violence, but did not contain information on the detainees' procedural
rights.
As for the temporary detention isolators, it is welcome that the list of procedural rights is provided to
the detainees in writing, which is translated into different languages217 and, if desired, the detainees
can have the above document in their cells.218 According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the
detainees are given a reasonable period of time to read the document and only after that, they sign it.219
Nevertheless, the issue of informing detainees of their rights remains a challenge at this stage and the
detainees sign the document on the rights so that they are not aware of its content. During interviews
conducted with the detainees by the Special Preventive Group, half of the respondents stated that they
were informed of their rights when being placed in the isolator. The rest said they had not been
informed of their rights.
Detainees have to spend an average of four hours under police control220 before being transferred to
the temporary detention facility. A number of investigative activities can be carried out during the
mentioned period. Therefore, it is important to verbally inform detainees of their rights during
detention and to provide the same information in writing as soon as possible.221 In recent years, the
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has been requesting in its recommendations to
216
Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, Article: 38 (2) and Article 174 (1).
In the Georgian, Russian, English, Azerbaijani, Armenian, German, French, Arabic and Turkish languages.
218 Response of the Government of Georgia to the report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture
following its visit paid to Georgia on November 21, 2019, available in English: <https://rm.coe.int/168098e29c>,
[last accessed: 30.01.2020].
219 Ibid.
220 See the sub-chapter on the duration of presence under police control.
221 28th General Report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, 2019, paragraph: 66, available
in English at: <https://rm.coe.int/16809420e3> [last accessed: 30.01.2020].
217
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