It is up to the Public Defender where to go and who to meet, - Public Defender Nino Lomjaria told Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani at the Human Rights Committee session.

According to him, it is not up to the Minister what the Public Defender should do.

“It is up to the Public Defender where to go and who to meet. I hail your interest in my work, though, I will tell you that the National Preventive Mechanism has at least 10 years of work experience in the direction of prisons, while the Public Defender has working in the same direction for about 20 years and we know better than you, when the Public Defender should enter a facility and when not. This has its purpose, and if you wish, we can brief you on our methodology in a non-public format. In any case, it is not up to the Minister when and what the Public Defender should do. The important thing is that we have competent findings,” Lomjaria said.