Council of Europe commissioner horrified by Georgian prison conditions
Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg told journalists in Tbilisi on February 18 that despite the construction of several new prisons, living conditions in Georgia's prisons are still "unbearable" and fail to meet elementary humanitarian norms, Caucasus Press reported. One week earlier, Georgian human rights ombudsman Sozar Subar similarly concluded that a new prison in Rustavi was opened before it was ready to admit new inmates. Hammarberg also commented on human rights violations in the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflict zones, and urged the Georgian parliament to expedite passage of a draft law permitting the Meskhetians deported from southern Georgia in 1944 and their descendants to return to Georgia, Caucasus Press reported. In the course of a weeklong visit to Georgia, Hammarberg met with representatives of the governments of the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Abkhaz government in exile, and with Dmitry Sanakoev, who was elected "president" by the Georgian population of South Ossetia in a ballot last November not recognized by the international community as legal and valid (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 13, 2006). LF // Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. RFE/RL
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