“Historical justice always wins over historical injustice” - Georgian Justice Minister on victory against Russia in 2008 war case at ECHR

Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze on Friday hailed the victory of the country over Russia in a European Court of Human Rights case related to the 2008 war between the two states and stressed “historical justice always wins over historical injustice, no matter how much time passes”.

The decision, published earlier on Friday, which ordered the Russian Government to pay up to €130 million for the benefit of 24,000 Georgian citizens affected during the war, has been a “great success” on the path of Georgia’s de-occupation, Bregadze said, noting “sooner or later” Russia would have to fully compensate the damage it had caused to Georgian citizens.

Russia not only violated a number of international norms against the state of Georgia, but also against specific people, as well as their convention [European Convention on Human Rights] rights, [...] it is a violation of the right to life, torture and inhuman treatment”, the Minister emphasised in his comments to the media.

He also pointed out other cases that Georgia had won against Russia, including the 2020 decision, which ordered the country to pay a €10 million fine to Georgia for the illegal deportation of Georgian citizens back in 2006, and a “historic” win on the 2008 war case in January 2021, which confirmed that Russia had violated “several articles” of the European Convention on Human rights during the conflict and carried out ethnic cleansing of Georgians.