ECHR once again confirms Russia’s responsibility over mass, human rights violations in  Georgia's occupied regions - Justice Ministry

The Georgian Justice Ministry on Thursday said the decision of the European Court of Human Rights to admit Georgia’s application against Russia on the alleged deterioration of the human rights situation along the administrative boundary line “once again confirmed” that Russia was responsible for mass violations against Georgian citizens.

In its statement issued after the ECHR’s decision, the Ministry noted Georgia’s fourth application against Russia alleged that the latter was engaged in harassment, unlawful arrests and detentions, assaults, torture, killing and intimidation of ethnic Georgians, who attempted to cross the ABL, between the Government-controlled territory and its Russian-occupied territories.

It should be noted that the ECHR fully shared the legal position of Georgia along with the submitted evidence and deemed all the claims of the Georgian Government admissible”, the state body stressed, adding the Government had provided all relevant documentation to the court in 2021 and 2022.

• ECHR unanimously accepts Georgia's application on rights violations by Russian occupation forces

The documentation, presented by the Georgian side, included the country’s agencies’ statistics on violations committed by Russia, national court decisions on relevant criminal cases, reports of international organisations, and public statements of Russian authorities, as well as facts on political, financial, military and other types of “close ties” between Russia and the de facto authorities of Georgia's Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions.

The ECHR emphasised that the unlawful arrests and deaths of three Georgian citizens in the occupied territories - Archil Tatunashvili, Giga Otkhozoria and David Basharuli - were “illustrative cases” of massive human rights violations by Russia, the Ministry said.

The case will now move to the substantive review stage, where the court will examine the mass and specific human rights violations alleged by the Georgian Government against Russia, the state body pointed out and extended gratitude towards the state agencies “for their active involvement” in gathering the relevant evidence for the case.