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Case of Natia Imnadze

Date: 2014-11-22

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Author: IDFI

Posted Category : Civil servant,Governmental institutions,Other,Georgia,

According to the information spread in the media, a case similar to the dismissal in the system of the Ministry of Justice has happened in the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia. The information given below is based on the media coverage and requires further investigation.

The Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia, Sozar Subari, has criticized the part of the report of Public Defender concerning prisoners with Tuberculosis, calling the recommendation  of  the  Ombudsman  on  this  issue  “unprofessional”  and  questioned  his obligation to have met prisoners in person. Following this critic, in April of 2013, the magazine Liberali has conducted an interview with the Head of Department of Monitoring and Prevention, Natia Imnadze. Imnadze has noted that although no article obliges the Minister to meet the prisoners in person, such meetings would have been beneficial for gathering better information.

Besides, Imnadze spoke about the lack of professionalism of some people and spontaneous and fast changes of new management in the penitential system and increased power of some prisoners. In November of 2013 Imnadze and her deputy Otar Kvatchadze were dismissed. Imnadze  said  that  one  of  the  reasons  of  her  dismissal  may  have  been  her  critic  of  the penitentiary system earlier in an interview with Liberali. She also said that after the interview in April,  her  contact  with  the  media was  limited,  since  she  first  had  to  obtain  a permission from the Press Centre and the Public Defender. The representative of the Office of the Public Defender claimed that the Office cannot publicize grounds of dismissal because of the law on personal data protection. The Public Defender himself stated that Imnadze was dismissed because of Intentional failure to perform duties. Following the dismissal, three more employees of the same department have left their positions voluntarily. Natia Imnadze and Otar Kvatchadze regarded their dismissal as illegal and were going to appeal to the court.