(CNN) — Videos purportedly showing guards abusing prisoners, including one male inmate being raped with a broom handle, have led to arrests and outrage both inside and outside the Eurasian country of Georgia.
President Mikheil Saakashvili said yesterday what occurred at Gldani Number 8 penitentiary in Tbilisi is “a horrific affront to human rights and human dignity.”
Georgia television stations, including TV9, broadcast the videos Tuesday night. The government has not questioned their authenticity.
“The police have already arrested most of those identified as involved in these gross abuses,” Saakashvili said in a statement. “Others are on the run but (are) being actively pursued by police.”
The faces of those being filmed were obscured. One man cries out while he is being raped with a broom handle. Another video shows an inmate being punched.
The country’s interior ministry on Tuesday blamed certain prison employees for the degrading treatment.
The ministry said a prisoner at the facility offered “substantial reimbursement” to employees for their actions and the video recordings. Its statement did not elaborate on the prisoner’s motivation.
The interior ministry identified that prisoner as Tamaz Tamazashvili, father-in-law of Irlakli Garibashvili, a member of the opposition Georgian Dream party.
Garibashvili said Tamazashvili’s life was in danger and that he was being held “hostage” by the president.
Tamazashvili had nothing to do with the taped incidents, Garibashvili said.
Georgia’s minister of corrections and legal assistance, meanwhile, tendered her resignation.
