20 Sep 2012 13:57

Lortkipanidze appointed Georgian corrections department head

TBILISI. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Giorgi Lortkipanidze has been appointed the new head of the Georgian Corrections, Probation and Legal Assistance Ministry's corrections department, Shota Utiashvili, the head of the office of the Georgian prime minister, told journalists on Thursday.

Before this appointment, Lortkipanidze had served as a deputy interior minister.

President Mikheil Saakashvili accepted previous Corrections Minister Khatuna Kalmakhelidze's resignation on Wednesday, which she had tendered in light of a scandal that erupted in the country after opposition TV channels showed videos in which convicts of a Tbilisi-based prison had been tortured and otherwise humiliated by prison staffers.