Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ case sent to ECHR
The lawyers of Natalia Ilichova and Iveli Melashvili, who have been accused of withholding materials from a border agreement with Azerbaijan that ended ‘against the interests of the state’, claim ‘the case is politicised and their imprisonment is unreasonable’. Photo: IPN
Tweet 
Share
Two suspects in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ case - Iveri Melasvhili and Natalia Ilichova - have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI) announced earlier today that the applicants complain for the violations of several articles of the European Convention of Human Rights.
GDI said that the application concerns the period of detention and custody of the applicants between October 7, 2020 and January 28, 2021.
There is a special emphasis in the document on the restriction of the right to liberty for a purpose, which is incompatible with the convention. Namely, the applicants claim that their detention was a part of the political agenda of the ruling party”, GDI wrote.
Melashvili and Ilichova were released on 20,000 GEL bail each on January 28 after the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office requested the bail, stating that there was no need for pretrial detention.
The case also concerns the sections of Georgia's 6th century David Gareji monastery complex. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
They were detained last October for withholding materials from a border agreement with Azerbaijan that, according to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, led to the forfeit of about 3,500 hectares of lands against Georgia’s interests, which both of them deny.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union back in 1991, out of its four neighbouring 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 back in 2019.
Two detainees in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ high-profile case Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilichova have been released on 20,000 GEL bail each earlier today. The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office requested the bail, stating that there was no need for pretrial detention. Melashvili and Ilichova will not be able to leave the country before the court delivers a verdict in the case.
The prosecution says that a motive has been identified in the high-profile Georgia-Azerbaijan border case, which saw two former officials detained last year for allegedly withholding materials from a border agreement with Azerbaijan under the United National Movement government in 2006-2007.
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.
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.
Police are investigating an attack on a suspect in the Georgia-Azerbaijan ‘land forfeit’ case Iveri Melasvhili and the crew of opposition-minded Mtavari Arkhi TV which occurred earlier today in David Gareji.