Epress.am News from Armenia
Female inmates in Georgia whose children were taken away from them and put in an orphanage will be launching a hunger strike on Jan. 30, Interfax news agency reports.
As told to the press by Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights NGO Chairperson Nana Kakabadze, the children of five of the women are under the age of 3 and the prison administration has decided to put them in an orphanage.
“The prisoners are asking the law to be changed so they don’t lose custody of their children. As is known, the children’s rights are also violated since they are unable to be with their parents and are forced to grow up without their mothers. Judging by the nature of the crimes, it can be said that they will be forced to stay in prison for a long time and no one knows when they’ll be able to see their children,” said Kakabadze.
According to her, by staging the hunger strike, the inmates hope to draw the attention of the public and the media to their cause.
The inmates, Kakabadze mentioned, have also appealed to the Georgian authorities and the president’s wife, Sandra Roelofs, but to no avail — their requests went unanswered.