Lawyers of detainees deemed responsible for ‘anti-state’ Georgia-Azerbaijan border deal to appeal to ECHR
Since the collapse of Soviet Union back in 1991, out of its four neighboring states Georgia has agreed upon its borders only with Turkey. Only two-thirds of the state border has been agreed upon with Azerbaijan so far, which on several occasions triggered tension in David Gareji last year. Photo: IPN.
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The lawyers of two detainees who have been accused of withholding materials from a border agreement with Azerbaijan that ended ‘against the interests of the state’ will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the refusal of a court to grant them bail.
Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilichova were detained on October 7 by the country’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office. On October 9, Melashvili and Ilichova were sent to pre-trial custody by the court.
Lawyers of Melashvili and Ilichova told Rustavi 2 today, that ‘the case is politicized and their imprisonment is unreasonable’.
The Georgian Prosecutor’s Office claims that the detainees hid an original map issued in 1937-38 and instead used other maps based on which border sections between Georgia and Azerbaijan were agreed against the interests of Georgia.
- Prosecutor’s Office launches investigation into Georgia-Azerbaijan border deal ‘against Georgia’s interests’
- Protest rally held in support of detainees in Georgia-Azerbaijani border case
An official statement of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office reads that Iveri Melashvili, the head of the Department for Border Relations with Neighbouring Countries and Natalia Ilichova, Chief Inspector of the Land Border Protection Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, hid the original map from 1938 from the border commission members and instead used a 1970-80 map in the process of demarcating the border, leading to the forfeit of about 3,500 hectares of lands against Georgia’s interests.
Since the collapse of Soviet Union back in 1991, out of its four neighboring states Georgia has agreed upon its borders only with Turkey.
Only two-thirds of the state border has been agreed upon with Azerbaijan so far, which on several occasions triggered tension in David Gareji last year.
Two former members working on a state commission charged with demarcating Georgia’s border with Azerbaijan have been detained earlier today by the country’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office. The Prosecutor’s Office claims that the detainees hid an original map issued in 1937-38 and instead used other maps based on which the border sections between the two countries were agreed ‘against the interests of Georgia and history.’ The detainees are the head of the department for border relations with neighbouring countries of the Ministry of Foreigh Affairs of Georgia Iveri Melashvili and a senior inspector in the border protection department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Natalia Ilichova.
Georgian Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani said Georgia has come up with solid arguments to talk about the disputed area of David Gareji monastery complex in the framework of the Georgia-Azerbaijan joint border commission.
Civic activists and opposition politicians gathered in front of the Prosecutor’s Office in Tbilisi to protest the detention of two former members of a state commission that worked on demarcation of a border between Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili says that Georgia-Azerbaijan made no border agreement when she served as Georgia's foreign minister between 2004 and 2005, under the United National Movement leadership.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office has released a surveillance video earlier today and said that one of the detainees in the high-profile Georgia-Azerbaijan border case Iveri Melashvili was forced to sign a border agreement in 2006 under the previous United National Movement government, which led to the forfeit of 3,500 hectares of lands against Georgia’s interests.
Money has been collected to fully post bail for Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilichova, who are charged in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ high profile case, the civic movement Sirtskhvilia (Geo. Shame) stated yesterday after the release of the suspects.