Gldani prison has been under siege since Tuesday night after revelations of prisoner abuse. (Photo: Mari Nikuradze.)

TBILISI, DFWatch – Prison employees who committed torture and humiliating abuse in a Tbilisi prison are still going to work as normal, inmates say.

Prisoners at Gldani prison told this to journalists who were let in. They named the names of specific persons who have tortured prisoners, but are still working there.

Inmates at Gldani told journalists that after a new prison minister was appointed who promised to clean up after the abuse scandal, people who they knew committed torture were not fired. One prisoner said there were threats to them – ‘this time will end, our time will come and then you will see what we will do to you’.

When the scandalous footage of prisoner torture was released, President Mikheil Saakashvili suspended the entire prison staff in the whole country, and the prison minister Khatuna Kalmakhelidze resigned. Giorgi Tughushi, former public defender, was appointed instead.

He has spent years criticizing Georgia’s penitentiary system and writing reports, but his remarks and recommendations were always ignored by the government. As a minister he said that he will reform the system and first he will fire employees involved in torture.

The prison ministry claims that tens of employees are daily fired.