New Verdict by European Court: Russia Must Pay EURO2000 - EURO15,000 to Deported Georgians
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, March 28
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered its verdict on Tuesday, stating that Russia must pay from EURO2,000 to EURO15,000 to the Georgian nationals who were unlawfully treated in Russia in autumn 2006 when hundreds of Georgian citizens were illegally detained and deported from the country.
The Court affirmed that 14 of the 19 applicants were illegally deported and 13 of them had faced a breach of their liberty and security rights, faced inhumane and degrading treatment and did not have access to an effective remedy.
Earlier in January, the same court announced its decision in Georgia -Russia case, regarding the detention and collective expulsion of Georgian nationals from Russia in the autumn of 2006.
ECHR stated that Russia must pay Georgia 10,000,000 euros for non-pecuniary damage a group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals suffered with.
Russia has time until the end of April to meet the demand.
The opposition is skeptical regarding Russia paying the fine. However, the Georgian government declares that it will require all measures available to induce the country to pay for the caused damage.
In 2006 more than 4,600 expulsion orders were issued by Russian authorities against Georgian nationals.
More than 2,300 were detained and forcibly expelled and the remaining left the country on their own.
The mass deportation was preceded by the arrest of four Russian officers on charges of espionage by the previous government of Georgia in September 2006. In revenge, later in 2006 large numbers of Georgian nationals were mistreated in Russia.
