Chief of the penitentiary system Bacho Akhalaia dismissed allegations voiced by Public Defender Sozar Subari that Akhalaia was possibly linked to the March 27 prison incident in Tbilisi, calling them “unserious.”

“This [allegation] is false… I am astonished about these accusations and it is difficult to make a serious comment on them… This is a dirty provocation,” Bacho Akhalaia told reporters on June 6.

Public Defender Sozar Subari said on June 6 that concerns have increased that the March 27 prison incident in Tbilisi, which resulted in the death of seven inmates, was triggered by prison system chief Bacho Akhalaia after one of the inmates testified that he cooperated with the prison officials in fabricating evidence which was designed to prove that the incident was, as officials claim, a well-planned prison riot aimed at destabilizing the situation in the country.

Before his appointment to the position of the Penitentiary System Chief in December, 2005 Bacho Akhalaia served as Sozar Subari’s deputy.