The President of Georgia presented Giorgi Tugushi as the Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance. According to Mikheil Saakashvili, full reorganization of the ministry has already been declared, but a strong minister is needed in order to implement the planned changes. As he noted, Giorgi Tugushi was the most vocal critic of the penitentiary system and he will be the one to correct the shortcomings that have appeared in the structure. According to the Head of State, like in the police, a completely new structure must be created, which will fully eliminate such type of systemic violations and moreover, crime.
“The new Minister will have complete independence and nobody will intervene in his business but the law and the society. This is very important. I am worried about politics the least these days, but it is absolutely unacceptable for me, because of specific reasons, to politically manipulate the fate of people. In this case we have to build a society which will have zero tolerance for crime on one hand, including organized crime. At the same time this society must be protected – nobody must play with these topics, especially with human rights, because we have achieved the unthinkable in this regard. On the other hand, there will be zero tolerance in terms of human rights violations. This is the principle that we should all implement together, and create mechanisms which will make the facts that have happened in this system impossible to repeat. This was happening because this system was full of old cadres and there was still chaos. At the same time, people were being nosy and doing things they were not supposed to do. We will take this affair to the end. The answer of our government to radical challenges is more radical than that of any government. Any government could do this. We will not back down to any kind of challenge, and I am glad that this person, who is not a politician or a member of any party, did not back down. We need new brave persons, who will change everything in the system” – noted Mikheil Saakashvili.
According to the new Minister, he will have a chance at this post to turn the recommendations and remarks which he had towards the penitentiary system into reality, make radical changes in the system, and protect the rights of every inmate accordingly. As Giorgi Tugushi noted, overcoming the existing shortcomings in the system is a long term process and it will happen gradually. He added that the penitentiary system must be a place where inmates will be corrected, and he promised the family members of prisoners that such horrible facts, which were shown in the last several days, will never happen in the penitentiary system.
“My priority will be full restructuring of the system and protecting rights of every prisoner. The penitentiary system must be a place where correction of prisoners will happen instead of their torture and traumas. The President of Georgia promised me full independence in this affair. I am going to change the system entirely, and I will need a lot of new employees. Financing will also increase. I was giving out recommendations in the past, many of which remain unconsidered, and now I have a chance to implement these recommendations myself” – stated Giorgi Tugushi.