Russia to Pay 30 000 EURO to Deported Lia Shioshvili

Information Center of Kakheti

European Court of Human Rights made decision into the case Georgian citizen Lia Shioshvili v. Russia. The Strasbourg Court ordered the Russian Federation to pay 30 000 EURO to Lia Shioshvili and her children. The case refers to mass deportation of ethnic Georgians from Russia in 2006, when Russian law enforcement officers arrested pregnant Lia Shioshvli together with her 4 children in Ruza town of Moscow oblast and then expelled her from the country by train to Dagestan. 

Extremely tortured family walked across the Dagestan-Azerbaijani border early in December and on December 15, Lia Shioshvili gave a birth to her dead child in Gurjaani hospital, Georgia. 

Lia Shioshvili appealed the Strasbourg Court in 2007 and claimed compensation for moral and material damage. The Court started discussion of her case on January 31, 2011.

On December 20, 2016 the Strasbourg Court published its decision on the website which ruled violation of several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case. 

As Nikoloz Legashvili, lawyer of Lia Shioshvili, told ICK the court ruled violation of the Articles 1 and 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture), Article 13 (effective measures of legal defense) of the European Convention in Shioshvili’s case.

The Court unanimously ruled that the Russian Federation shall pay 30 000 EURO to compensate non-material damage as well as all fees that may be taxed. The compensation shall be paid within 3 months term from the announcement of the final decision.

In 2006-2007, more than 7 000 Georgian citizens were deported as a result of anti-Georgian campaign of the Kremlin. 2380 of them spent some time in the temporary shelters for aliens, where they lived in inhuman and unbearable conditions. 

On October 17, 2006, 58-years-old Tengiz Togonidze and on December 2, 51-years-old Manana Jabelia died in one of the abovementioned shelters. Revaz Berulava died for the same reason in one of the Moscow based hospitals, where he was denied to get medical assistance because he was Georgian.