6.  The applicant was born in 1980 and lives in Tbilisi.
7.  The applicant was a member and one of the leaders of a group which called itself the National Religious Movement, which was founded in Tbilisi on 11 May 2011. On 26 May 2011 a police officer drew up a report, which stated that he possessed information that twenty-four individuals, including the applicant, were plotting a violent overthrow of the Government of Georgia. According to the report, all the alleged plotters were located at the Kintsvisi Monastery, in the Kareli region.
8.  On 30 May 2011 a press release was posted on the website of the Ministry of the Interior (“the MoI”), which said that an armed group of twenty-four people had been detained in Kintsvisi on 26 May 2011.
9.  According to the official record of the detention and search of the applicant, which he duly signed, the applicant was placed under arrest at 6.12 a.m. on 27 May 2011 at Tbilisi police headquarters on suspicion of committing an offence under Article 315 § 1 of the Criminal Code (conspiracy or insurrection intended to change the constitutional order of Georgia by violent means). The report, which stated that he had been arrested after being questioned as a witness, also noted that he had bruises in the tailbone area, buttocks and left thigh, and haemorrhages on his left eye, right cheek and his nose.
10.  At 12.30 p.m. on the same day the applicant was taken to a pre-trial detention centre, where he underwent a visual examination on admission. The report drawn up thereafter confirmed that he had a swollen blue left eye, haemorrhages on his nose, and bruises in the tailbone area.
11.  By a decision of 28 May 2011 a judge, acting at the request of the prosecution, remanded the applicant in custody for fifty-five days. At the detention hearing, the applicant challenged the official report of his arrest and stated that he had been apprehended on 26 May in Kintsvisi, rather than on 27 May 2011 in Tbilisi. His submission disagreeing with the official record of his arrest was, however, dismissed. Relying in particular on the official record of the arrest, duly signed by the applicant, the Tbilisi City Court judge concluded that his allegations of unlawful detention were unsubstantiated.
12.  The applicant appealed against his pre-trial detention, maintaining his version of the circumstances surrounding the arrest. In particular, he stated that after having been apprehended in the Kintsvisi Monastery at around 11.30 a.m. on 26 May 2011, he had been transferred to Kareli police station where he had been beaten. He had then been transferred to Tbilisi police headquarters, where after having been physically assaulted again, he had been questioned for about six hours. The applicant maintained that the actual time of his arrest was different from the time of the arrest indicated in the official record. In such circumstances, the time-limit of 48 hours referred to in Article 196 of the CCP (see paragraph 36 below) had been exceeded, rendering his detention unlawful. On 6 June 2011 the applicant’s appeal was rejected by the Tbilisi Court of Appeal as inadmissible. The decision was served on the applicant on 9 June 2011.
13.  On 1 June 2011 the defence counsel of the applicant requested, at their own expense, a forensic medical examination of the applicant. On 22 July 2011 the applicant was examined by five medical specialists who concluded that from neurological and traumatological point of view the applicant’s condition was not serious. They noted that the bruises and cuts he had allegedly had on 27 May 2011 according to the report on his visual examination, were not visible.
14.  On 15 July 2011, the applicant was additionally charged with unlawful purchase and possession of firearms, an offence under Article 236 §§ 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code.
15.  On 21 July 2011 the applicant’s trial started. The applicant reiterated his allegation that he had been detained on 26 May in Kintsvisi and not on 27 May in Tbilisi. He also complained of the physical and psychological abuse to which he had been subjected in Kintsvisi, then in the Kareli police station and finally at Tbilisi police headquarters. In particular, he alleged that he had been punched in the face by one of the officers of the Special Forces in Kintsvisi and then severely beaten by the same officer and several others in the Kareli police station. In Tbilisi he had been subjected to further abuse and psyshological pressure with the prupose of extracting a confession from him.
16.  On 12 August 2011 the applicant was convicted as charged and sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment. The judge relying on the official record of the detention and search of the applicant dismissed his submission that he had been arrested in Kintsvisi rather than Tbilisi. The court did not address the applicant’s ill-treatment allegations.
17.  The applicant appealed. His conviction was upheld by the Tbilisi Court of Appeal on 22 November 2011. By a decision of 12 March 2012 the Supreme Court of Georgia rejected an appeal by the applicant on points of law as inadmissible.
18.  The applicant was released from prison on 13 January 2013 under the Amnesty Act of 28 December 2012.
19.  On 28 May 2011 the applicant was transferred to Tbilisi no. 8 Prison. On admission he underwent a visual examination which confirmed bruises and haemorrhages on his body and face (see paragraphs 9-10 above). On 1 June 2011 the prison administration sent a copy of the above report together with the applicant’s complaint about his alleged ill-treatment to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and requested the initiation of proceedings.
20.  On 4 June 2011 an investigation was begun under Article 333 § 1 of the Criminal Code into the offence of exceeding official authority. The applicant repeatedly asked to be questioned in that regard, but his requests were ignored by the authorities. On 29 August 2011 he sent a letter to the prosecutor’s office complaining of their inactivity. While maintaining his allegations, he requested that criminal proceedings be initiated against those who had committed unlawful acts against him. In support of his allegations he submitted a photo, allegedly taken during his initial questioning, showing injuries on his face.
21.  On 2 September 2011 the applicant was questioned by an investigator at Tbilisi no. 8 Prison. He reiterated his version of events concerning his arrest and subsequent ill‑treatment. He claimed that he had been punched in the face by one of the officers of the Special Forces in Kintsvisi. Then, he had been beaten by several officers in the Kareli police department. One of them, according to the applicant, had been wearing a mask. In Tbilisi two police officers had further subjected him to physical and psychological abuse.
22.  The applicant subsequently filed several complaints criticising the lack of progress in the investigation and particularly the fact that his detailed statement had not given rise to a number of further procedural measures. In response to one of his complaints, by a letter of 11 December 2011, he was told that he was not a party to the criminal proceedings in question and hence had no right to lodge any applications or to request that certain investigative steps be taken.
23.  During 2012 the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, acting at the request of the applicant, sent three requests for information to the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia concerning the investigation into the alleged ill-treatment of the applicant. All three letters remained unanswered.
24.  On 18 December 2012 the applicant was questioned again. He confirmed his account of events as given in his statement of 2 September 2011, describing in a more detailed manner his arrest operation and the alleged ill-treatment that followed. He claimed that his beating at the Kareli police department had lasted for about an hour and that among others he had been severely beaten on his coccyx with a rubber truncheon. The applicant also provided a physical description of the officers allegedly implicated in his ill-treatment and claimed that he could identify at least two of them. As to the abuse he allegedly suffered at Tbilisi police headquarters, he claimed that he could identify both of the men involved, as they had body type of a wrestler. They also had, as the applicant could remember, damaged ears, an identifiable feature of wrestlers.
25.  On 7 February 2013 the applicant filed a complaint with the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia, criticising the lack of progress in the investigation. That complaint was followed by others to the Minister of Justice, the Chief Prosecutor’s Office and the investigator in charge of the case.
26.  On 25 February 2013 the applicant was questioned once again. This time along with providing details of his alleged ill-treatment, the applicant gave the investigator several photographs and a video footage depicting one of the officers of the Special Forces allegedly involved in his ill-treatment.
27.  In the meantime, between January and April 2013 the investigator in charge questioned various officials from the MoI, among them police officers of the Kareli police station. They all denied having seen either the applicant or any of the other detainees being ill-treated. The investigator also interviewed the staff of the local emergency service. They confirmed that on 26 May 2011 an ambulance had been called for one of the detainees at the Kareli police station. While examining him they had observed multiple haemorrhages on his back. They had also seen twenty to twenty‑five other detainees at the police station, although they had not witnessed any fact of violence themselves. Within the same period of time, the investigation also questioned the twenty-three co-defendants of the applicant. They all claimed that they had been ill-treated on the day of the arrest by members of the Special Forces.
28.  According to the case file, on 3 May 2016 the investigation into the offence of exceeding official authority by the police was transferred from the Shida Kartli Prosecutor’s Office to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia. On 13 June 2016 the investigator in charge obtained a medical record from Tbilisi no. 8 Prison, according to which the following injuries were observed on the applicant on 28 May 2011: small bruises on his nose and left eye, large haemorrhages in the area of his buttocks, left thigh and the tailbone. According to the record, the applicant claimed to have sustained those injuries prior to his arrest.
29.  In June 2017 the investigator questioned two former high officials of the Kareli police. He also obtained video recordings that were apparently available online in connection with the Kintsvisi operation.
30.  On 19 July 2017 the offence under the investigation was reclassified into an offence of exceeding power by using violence, an offence under Article 333 § 3 (b) of the Criminal Code. The responsible prosecutor concluded that there was sufficient medical evidence to show that the applicant and other detainees had sustained various injuries on 26 May 2011. In support of his conclusion he also referred to the statements of the twenty-three co-defendants of the applicant, who had all confirmed the fact of their enduring physical and psychological abuse on the day of the arrest. Most of them, according to the prosecutor, had not voiced their ill-treatment allegations at the initial stage of the investigation out of fear of further abuse and also in exchange for plea bargain that the prosecution had concluded with them.
31.  In May 2018 twelve co-defendants of the applicant were questioned again. They provided detailed description of their individual experience of the ill-treatment focusing in addition on the physical description of the officers involved. They claimed that the officers of the Special Forces spoke Megrelian (a Kartvelian language spoken in certain regions of western Georgia).
32.  On 25 July 2018 the applicant sent yet another letter to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office complaining of the lack of progress in the investigation. He criticised the fact that despite having consistently maintained that he could identify the officers who had ill-treated him, no arrangements had been made for an identification procedure to be undertaken for over seven years. He also requested that the two investigators who had drawn up the record on his arrest and personal search and who had participated in questioning him on 26 and 27 May 2011 be interviewed, and that further interviews take place with several other officials who had been involved in his arrest. While requesting that a number of other specific investigative measures be undertaken, the applicant again asked the prosecution authorities to grant him victim status and also to reclassify the offence under the investigation from abuse of power (an offence under Article 333 of the Criminal Code) to torture (an offence under Article 144 § 1 of the Criminal Code). The applicant’s letter has apparently gone unanswered.
33.  In July-September 2018 some additional investigative acts were undertaken, including the questioning of the medical staff of the Ministry of the Interior and Tbilisi no. 8 Prison, and of clerics from the Kintsvisi Monastery. The latter while confirming having seen the applicant and his entourage assaulted when arrested, also provided information about the appearance of those involved in the arrest operation. They also claimed hearing the officers speak Megrelian.
34.  According to the case-file the proceedings are still pending.