Translated material
How to sue Russia?
Georgia will defend the rights of deportees in Strasbourg
Yesterday, Georgia finally decided to appeal to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights to protect its citizens expelled from Russia . In the Georgian parliament, at the final meeting of the temporary commission to protect the rights of deportees, the Minister of Justice and the Georgian consul in Russia were heard. On Friday, the Georgian parliament will adopt a corresponding resolution on this issue.A temporary parliamentary commission was created in October 2006, when, shortly after the September 27 arrest of four Russian officers in Tbilisi on suspicion of espionage, Russia took a set of measures against its southern neighbor, including the expulsion of illegal migrants. Georgian Consul in Russia Zurab Pataradze told Vremya Novostei that a total of 4,634 such decisions were made by Russian courts. 2,380 Georgian citizens were forcibly returned to their homeland. Tbilisi believes that this process was accompanied by massive violations of human rights and persecution on ethnic grounds.
The diplomat noted that this year the attitude towards Georgian citizens in Russia is gradually changing for the better. But Georgian deputies believe that it is impossible to retreat and it is necessary to sue Russia in any case. Therefore, the commission meeting It turned out emotional. Minister of Justice Georgy Kavtaradze explained that the claim must be submitted to the Strasbourg court by the end of March - six months are counting from the first, as Tbilisi considers, discriminatory decisions of the Russian authorities. Two British lawyers hired by the government are helping to draw it up. However, it is not yet clear whether this will be a lawsuit on behalf of the state against the state (at a meeting of the parliamentary commission it was noted that there are such precedents) or whether individual claims of victims during the deportation will be sent to the European court from Georgia. It is possible that both forms of going to court will be chosen.
As the Minister of Justice noted, work is now underway to document the violations of the Russian side. For example, many deportees do not have appropriate court decisions - they were either not extradited or were taken away at the Russian border. “I cannot allow Georgia to file a lawsuit and not win,” said Georgiy Kavtaradze. “I’m working on a legal document, not a political one.”
Some opposition deputies felt that the minister had lost heart. The famous climber, parliamentarian from the opposition “Democratic Front” Georgiy Tortladze came down to the microphone several times and demanded that the state bring a claim, since this is “a matter of prestige for all of Georgia.” The head of the commission, a representative of the presidential entourage Nikoloz Gvaramia, reassured the opposition deputies, asserting that Georgia does not intend to retreat in relations with Russia. He emphasized that the very fact of creating such a commission is a “political gesture”, a reaction to the “catastrophic infringement of the rights of Georgian citizens in Russia.”
But the opposition is still worried. “We must demand compensation - material, moral, demand the conviction of Russian officials responsible for violations of the rights of our citizens,” Georgy Tortladze told Vremya Novostey.
While the commission on deportees was meeting in parliament, in the neighboring building of the state chancellery, President Mikheil Saakashvili was explaining what Russia is like and what kind of Russian citizens he likes. The President presented the Order of Honor and a Georgian passport to the Russian actor Stanislav Sadalsky . Last year, at the height of the crisis, he asked for Georgian citizenship to maintain traditional ties between the two peoples.
Mr. Sadalsky appeared at the awards ceremony wearing a captain's cap. This did not bother Mr. Saakashvili, who told the actor that in his person he “welcomes all the courageous Russians, true representatives of the great and beloved Russia, who raised their voices against the violation of human rights, who loudly declared that it is infringing on human dignity on any grounds , including national ones, is unacceptable.” And he added that “the Russian people are a people who are related and very close to us. And this closeness only makes us stronger and better.”