Investigation Launched into Prison Incident Involving Giorgi Rurua

An investigation has been launched into yesterday’s incident involving the inmates of the N8 penitentiary facility, among them the shareholder of the major opposition channel Mtavari Arkhi, Giorgi Rurua.
 
The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia has issued a statement describing the incident. Rurua was apparently heading to meet his lawyer when he was verbally and physically assaulted by an inmate. The latter was in a nearby area, outside his cell, talking on the phone. As Rurua approached to pass the assailant’s cell, the prison guard closed the cell door, which was being kept open due to ongoing plumbing work inside, and stood there. When the incident happened, the same guard ran to break up the fray. At the same moment, the remaining inmates from the unlocked cell came out and rushed to join the clash. They, too, verbally and physically assaulted Rurua.

The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia releasedvideo footage of the incident to further dissolve any possible speculation and/or distortion of the facts. According to the agency, Rurua suffered bruising to the face following the incident. 
 
Last year, Rurua was arrested for the illegal carrying and possession of firearms, and earlier this year was sentenced to four years in prison.

Since then he has become the last item on the opposition’s ‘bargaining list’ for fulfilling the 8 March Agreement and has been referred to as a “political prisoner.” German Ambassador to Georgia, Hubert Knirsch, one of the four facilitators of the 8 March Agreement, stated that Rurua was not mentioned in the Agreement, thus confirming that Rurua was never part of the political consensus reached the adoption of constitutional changes, which envisaged the introduction of an essentially proportional electoral system for the 2020 parliamentary elections.