The Georgian public defender on Thursday was appointed to take over the cabinet portfolio of the country's corrections and legal assistance ministry in the wake of incidents involving the brutal mistreatment of prisoners.

Giorgi Tugushi, who has served as the public defender since 2009, was appointed by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili after the former corrections and legal assistance minister resigned.

"I am appointing as the head of this system a very fierce critic of this very same system and I am doing it purposefully, because it should turn into a completely different system," Saakashvili said.

Tugushi told local media that many of his previous findings in connection with prison mistreatment had been left unheeded.

"Previously I was documenting (problems) in a form of my reports and submitting them to the government," Tugushi said. "But as the president himself noted, many of my recommendations have been left unheeded.

"Now I should have a possibility to put into practice everything that I have been talking about for the last three years."

In his 2011 report, Tugushi wrote that "in order to completely eradicate ill-treatment, it is essential to effectively investigate each of such case and to overcome the syndrome of impunity that represents a serious problem today."

Local television stations have aired video footage showing prison guards beating young inmates and raping them with truncheons and brooms at a Tbilisi prison.

The brutal abuse has shocked the South Caucasus country and university students hit the streets on Wednesday and Thursday to protest mistreatment in prison.