Investigation to determine whether force used on prisoner was proportionate, minister

Georgia's Justice Minister Paata Salia on Monday said investigation will determine whether prison officers used proportionate force against an inmate and whether the number of officers involved was necessary.

Salia said a comprehensive investigation was under way and that authorities were carrying out a number of procedural measures to establish what happened during the incident.

“There are claims that force was used against him by a large number of people,” Salia said. “The investigation will establish whether the force used was proportionate, whether so many people were needed, and whether fewer people would have been sufficient.”

According to the minister, Georgian law requires prisoners to be searched and inspected before being placed in a de-escalation room.

Salia said footage showed the prisoner resisting the procedure and that the state had therefore used coercion.

He said the investigation would also determine whether the prisoner's rights had been violated.

The comments follow allegations by convicted prisoner Giorgi Davitaze, who said he was sexually assaulted in a prison isolation cell in an act he described as retaliation, humiliation and an attack on his dignity.

Davitaze also said that, on 4 October, he deliberately swallowed a small unidentified object in front of an employee of Prison No. 6 in protest. He refused to be taken to a medical clinic afterwards.