International day of supporting victims of torture is marked in Georgia

Yesterday, on June 25, non-government organizations held a silent action in Sharden Street (a street in Tbilisi, close to the embankment, where the most popular cafes in the Georgian capital are open).

The participants lit hundreds of candles and were silently holding the slogans "Together against torture."

For reference, in January Sandro Ghirbliani, a young employee of the "Georgia bank", was kidnapped here.

On the following day Sandro Ghirbliani was found in a gully near the out-of-town cemetery in Okrokhaby. Experts claim that there were traces of torture on the Ghirbliani's body.

The case of Ghirbliani in Georgia may become as notorious as the case of Giorgy Gongadze in Ukraine. In the course of investigation of the case, 4 senior police functionaries were arrested. According to the public opinion, the murder was instigated by representatives of the higher echelons of power in Georgia.

The Information and Documentation Center on Human Rights informs that this day of the year is marked with the motto "Together against torture."

The today's "Together against torture" action of Georgian human rights activists has been held at noon in the Vere park.

Later, the action was held in front of the building of the former Ministry of Security (now a unit of the Georgian MIA). A theatrical action against torture was staged there. The action in which about 50 people took part was organized by the Georgian non-government organization "Institute of Equality ".

Instruments of torture, masks and hand-cuffs were placed in front of the building. The participants in the action addressed the unit officers with a request to stop torture in the country. In the course of the action, the participants reminded the authorities again about the murder of Sandro Ghirbliani and demanded that all initiators of the tragedy should be punished.

As Lasha Chkhartishvili, member of the NGO "Institute of Equality", declared to the journalists, "the government of Shevarnadze was known by facts of torture in Georgia, however, unfortunately the new authorities are at least as brutal."