Proposal to the Minister of Internal Affairs Regarding Violation of the Law towards a Citizen
On December 22, 2014, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia with a proposal to start disciplinary proceedings against representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia regarding legitimacy of administrative detention of citizen N. K.
The Public Defender believes that the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs violated the decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia of December 31, 2013 “On approval of disciplinary charter of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia” and failed to duly fulfill their duties.
In the words of citizen N. K., he/she was detained by patrol policemen in Kutaisi at 16.00 on August 6, 2014. He/she was told that there were grounds to suppose that he/she was under the influence of narcotic substance. Upon detention he/she was handcuffed and put in a patrol car. According to N. K., prior to conduction of a drug test he/she was kept handcuffed in the patrol car for 6 hours. According to results of the test, the test on consumption of narcotic substances was negative for citizen N. K. He/she was released from administrative detention at 23.15.
And though the administrative detention of N. K. did not exceed the 12-hour period specified in the Code of Administrative Offences of Georgia, the detained was not taken to test for 6 hours which is unreasonably long time for restriction of liberty of an individual that is safeguarded by the Article 18 of the Constitution of Georgia.
According to the detention protocol, citizen N. K. no resistance on the part of the citizen N. K. took place , also there is no notes/ indications/ reference to any attempts to escape, or inflict damage/injuries to oneself or others. In addition to the mentioned circumstances, the law of Georgia “On Police” allows use of handcuffs during transferring/ escorting a detained thgh in the words of N.K. he was kept handcuffed in the yeard of Imereti Exper Ciminalistic department of the Minsitry of Ine\ternal Affairs of Georgia when no escorting was ocuducted. Accordingly, thus, there was no legal grounds for the use of handcuffs towards N.K.