ECHR rules Georgia must pay €10,000 to a Ukrainian man, imprisoned under UNM gov’t
The applicant, who was born in Ukraine, is currently detained in Georgia. According to the case file, the proceedings are still ongoing. Photo: ECHR
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled earlier today that Georgia must pay €10,000 to a Ukrainian man imprisoned for alleged drug possession upon arrival at Tbilisi International Airport back in 2008.
On September 27, 2008, an officer of the regional unit of the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti police reported to the head of his unit that he had received operational information about a drug offence. On the same date a criminal investigation was launched and the applicant was detained.
Denying the allegations, the applicant insisted that the drugs had been planted on him by the police and that a yellow balloon which had apparently contained the drugs had disappeared from his case file.
He also claimed that the strip search, including the anal inspection, had been carried out by an unauthorised officer in the absence of an expert (doctor) and that he had been physically and psychologically ill-treated during the search.
Moreover, he claimed that no attesting witnesses had been called during the search and no explanation had been given to him as to the reasons for his arrest, as he had not been provided with a professional interpreter throughout the proceedings.
On June 18, 2009 Tbilisi City Court found the applicant guilty and sentenced him to twenty-three years’ imprisonment. The court dismissed the applicant’s ill‑treatment allegations as unsubstantiated.
In reaching its verdict, the court had regard to the statements given by the three police officers who had searched the applicant and the interpreter present at the time, as well as the material evidence (drugs) obtained as a result of the relevant search and the expert report.
The applicant claimed €200,000 in respect of non‑pecuniary damage on account of the psychological, emotional and physical suffering he had endured at the hands of the Georgian authorities, which the government considered excessive.
Read the case of Bokhonko v. Georgia at ECHR webpage.
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