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ECHR to Discuss the Case of Mass Deportation of Georgians from Russia

February 1, 2011
Aleksi Bezhanishvili

On January 31st, ECHR started hearings on the complaint of Georgia vs. Russia submitted to the court in 2007. The complaint concerns the mass deportation of ethnical Georgians from Russian Federation. Georgia is accusing Russia in violating the range of articles of European Convention.

On January 31st six Georgian witnesses were interrogated in the court. As the Ministry of Justice informed Interpressnews, on February 1st the rest three witnesses of Georgian side will be interrogated. Russian witnesses and experts will be interrogated afterwards.

The State Minister of Reintegration Eka Tkeshelashvili expects positive results from Strasbourg. As she stated at the government session on January 31st, the chance that Georgian side wins the case is high: “Our chances are very high as the case relies on the objective facts. These facts are singlehandedly clear – the mass deportation of Georgians from Russian based on their ethnic background. People were discriminated and very important legal norms were violated. It is very hard not to see these facts.”

Individual Complaints

The ECHR will start hearings on the individual complaints of people deported from Russia after the Georgia-Russia interstate dispute is ended.

As the GYLA representative Natia Katsitadze stated to Interpressnews, they submitted 2 complaints to ECHR one of which combines the cases of 12 deported people and the second concerns case of deceased Tengiz Togonidze.

According to the lawyers, Togonadze died while transferring from isolator to the airport due to not receiving medical treatment.

Lawyers of Georgian side are accusing Russia of violating range of rights established by ECHR. These are – inhuman treatment, illegal suppression of liberty and violation of right to fair trial.

“In most of the cases the right to fair trial was violated. These people did not have the opportunity to appeal against the decision of deportation as they had to leave. The request on prohibition of collective deportation of foreigners was violated. The ethnical discrimination took place. We request the ascertaining whether Russia violated these rights and the moral and material compensation in case it is determined,” – stated Natia Katsitadze.

According to her, the official basis of deportation indicated in the Russian court materials is that Georgians’ documentation was not regularized and the term of visas was expired: “There might have been such people as well. But we chose the category that was residing legally and had visas. These people were deported as well. We are alleging that this was discrimination on ethnic background.”
The plaintiffs are covering the facts that followed their deportation in the complaint: “The deportation followed the detainment of Russian spied in Georgia. First embargo was imposed on Georgia then the mass deportation of ethical Georgians took place. It was politically intense situation.”

According to Katsitadze, Georgia state complaint vs. Russia relies on the cases of individuals belonging to the corresponding category.

The difference between the state and individual complaints is that in the first case, the state is appealing against another state and the complaint is of collective nature. As for the individual complaint it describes the history of each person and requests moral and material compensation against Russia.

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