33 witnesses give testimonies at ECtHR
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, June 21
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has announced they have listened to 33 witnesses of the short but brutal war between Russia and Georgia that took place in August 2008.
The Court said it was an inter-state case of Georgia v. Russia, and the application was submitted by Georgia on August 11 2008 in relation to the Russia-Georgia war and its aftermath.
The ECtHR said following a hearing on September 22 2011, the application was declared admissible.
The application raised the issues like right to life, right to liberty and security, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, right to an effective remedy, freedom of movement, protection of property and right to education.
The Court said the summoning process of the 33 witnesses started on June 6 and was completed late on June 16.
“The Court heard 33 witnesses in total: 16 summoned through the Georgian Government, through the Government of the Russian Federation and six directly by the Court,” the ECtHR said.
The ECtHR stressed a delegation of seven judges took evidence from the witnesses in Strasbourg, France, at the Court's headquarters.
The delegation member judges were Mirjana Lazarova-Trajkovska (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Nona Tsotsoria (Georgia), Vincent. A. De Gaetano (Malta), Helen Keller (Switzerland), Dmitry Dedov (Russian Federation), Jon Fridrik Kjølbro (Denmark) and Yonko Grozev (Bulgaria).
The ECtHR will now continue its examination of the case.
