ECHR rules Georgia must pay €10,000 to man tortured under previous gov’t

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has delivered a verdict in the case of Goguadze v. Georgia, which reads that the man was tortured and abused under the United National Movement government back in 2011 and the state must pay €10,000 in compensation.

The applicant was a member and one of the leaders of a group which called itself the National Religious Movement, which was founded in Tbilisi on May 11, 2011.

On May 26, 2011 Nikoloz Goguadze, together with 23 others, were detained at the Kintsvisi Monastery of eastern Georgia for allegedly plotting a coup, the same day the United National Movement brutally dispersed a peaceful, opposition rally on Rustaveli Avenue in central Tbilisi.

The Georgian Prosecutor’s Office says that there was a connection between the detention and the opposition rally.

Only two of the detainees, Goguadze and Oleg Keshelava, refused to admit to the crime and sign a plea bargain.

Goguadze was sentenced to 12 years and Keshelava to six years in prison. He and Kesheleva left prisons in 2013, under the Georgian Dream leadership, with the status of political prisoners. The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office launched a reinvestigation of the case in 2016 and the process is still in progress.

The ECHR confirmed the allegations of Goguadze that he was tortured and abused during his detention and interrogation.

The court also said that the investigation around the case was ineffective and proceeded with violations.

 The court considers that the initial and most crucial stage of the investigation in the current case was marred by total lack of action, “ECHR says.

Former Georgian Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili was sentenced to May 26 rally dispersal in Tbilisi, when law enforcers used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against protesters.

Four people were found dead on the night of the rally, many were injured and detained.