Opposition accuses Gov’t over deportation case
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, August 8
The current parliamentary opposition (and the previous ruling party), the United National Movement (UNM), has stressed that the current authorities are indifferent to the draft of a list of Georgians affected by a mass deportation from Russia in 2006 and have yet to apply to European courts for compensation.
Member of the UNM Otar Kakhidze said there were more than 4,600 people who were affected by the forcible deportation from Russia, and the current Government made no significant effort to collect information about the people and send the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) so that the Georgians could receive compensation.
The relevant state bodies have already responded to Kakhidze and said the cases of 345 people who suffered losses in the deportation have already been sent to the ECtHR, and the state bodies were actively working to shortly double the figure and collect information about any other Georgian citizens affected by Moscow's policy.
They also said the number of cases about the deported Georgians sent to the European Court was much less under the previous UNM Government, and equalled 119.
More than 4,600 Georgians working and living in Russia were detained in November 2006 amid a Georgia-Russia espionage controversy when the previous government of Georgia arrested four Russian officers on charges of espionage in September 2006.
The 2006 deportation of Georgians from Russia referred to the deaths, unlawful arrests, expulsions and overall mistreatment of several thousand ethnic Georgians by the Russian government in 2006.
The official Russian position was that the Georgian victims had violated Russia’s Immigration Laws and their treatment in custody and expulsion from the country was a standard law enforcement practice.
Georgia appealed to the EctHR, and in 2014 the European Court ruled in Georgia's favour, concluding that Russia's actions in 2006 violated the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2015, Georgia officially requested in excess of $70 million in damages for the victims; Russia has not paid the money.
However, there were certain cases when the Federation paid money to the families of deported Georgians.
In May this year Russia paid €70,000 to one of the victims’ families, who died in custody during the deportation process.
