Georgia makes activist minister after torture scandal

Georgia's leader on Thursday appointed the ex-Soviet state's human rights ombudsman as prisons minister amid protests over videos showing the torture and rape of convicts. "Giorgi Tugushi has been a very strong critic of the (penitentiary) system and I am appointing the system's most harsh critic as its leader," President Mikheil Saakashvili said on live television, amid a scandal that has shocked the nation before crucial elections. "My priority will be a complete overhaul of the system," ombudsman Tugushi said. Saakashvili on Wednesday deployed police in jails to replace prison officers after the release of the videos, which sparked protest rallies across the country. Officials have vowed to eradicate torture and corruption, and the former prisons minister resigned. Some of the graphic video footage showed a weeping half-naked male prisoner at a jail in Tbilisi begging for mercy before apparently being raped with a stick, while other images showed prison guards brutally kicking an inmate. The prosecutor's office said that 11 prison officials had been arrested and another was declared wanted. It alleged that some of the suspects had been paid a "significant sum of money" to carry out "inhuman and degrading treatment and torture" and deliver the films to an unnamed mastermind. The scandal erupted as Saakashvili's ruling party faces a major challenge in the October 1 parliamentary polls from an opposition bloc led by billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, who has vowed to oust the government.