One of the chapters of the US State Department 2021 Human Rights report, "Torture and other Inhuman Treatment", on the conditions and circumstances of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili's detention.
According to the report, “on November 11, the Public Defender’s Office asked the State Inspector’s Service (SIS) to initiate an investigation into alleged Page 6 violations of former president Saakashvili’s rights by the Ministry of Justice and Special Penitentiary Service by forcibly transferring him from Prison N12 in Rustavi to Prison Hospital N18 in Gldani, after his prolonged hunger strike.”
The document refers to the reports from the Public Defender's Office that the “Penitentiary Service restricted the 3rd President of Georgia (Saakashvili) from participating in his own trial, which violated the right to a fair trial enshrined in the Constitution of Georgia, since Saakashvili had not been allowed to appear before court on three occasions since his arrest and imprisonment.”
The report also mentions that on December 30, Georgian Dream members of parliament voted to abolish the SIS as of March 2022 - “In contrast to the previous mandate to investigate all law enforcement equally, the law does not authorize the new investigative agency to investigate certain crimes committed by prosecutors, such as murder and bodily harm. As part of the reorganization, the State Inspector was scheduled to be removed from office in March 2022, despite the fact that she had three years remaining in her constitutionally mandated term.”
The Human Rights report also states that “in the days leading up to parliament’s actions, the SIS had been investigating alleged inhuman treatment of former president Saakashvili during his forced November transfer from the Rustavi prison to the Gldani penitentiary clinic.”
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