Torture and Gross Violations of Due Process in Georgia

Between May and October 1992, nineteen men were arrested in Georgia on a variety of criminal charges; by September, their cases were united into one - Case No. 7493810 - along with the case against former President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia for abuse of power and related political crimes. Today, almost two years later, President Gamsakhurdia is dead, but the legacy of the political resentment against him lives on at the trial in the form of massive violations of due process, including the torture of the defendants. Prosecuted under the government of Eduard Shevardnadze, who came to power several months after Gamsakhurdia's ouster on January 6, 1992, the defendants face charges ranging from illegal arms possession to murder, and sentences from three years of imprisonment to, in the case of sixteen of the defendants, death.