Two Decisions of European Court VS Georgia Are Put in Force

Two decisions of the European Court of Human Rights VS Georgia were put in force. European Court passed judgment on the cases “Gorgiladze VS Georgia” and “Panjikidze and others VS Georgia” in October, 2009. Georgian government did not appeal against those judgments.

Decision of European Court must be executed. Committee of the Ministers of the European Council supervises the execution of the judgments.

European Court imposed fine of 5 000 Euro on Georgian state in favor of Gorgiladze and 2 000 Euro for Panjikidze, Kurashvili and Kantaria.

In the cases “Gorgiladze VS Georgia” and “Panjikidze and others VS Georgia” European Court concluded that Georgia breached Article 3 (torture) and Article 6 (right to fair trial) of the European Convention. Article 3 was considered to be breached because of poor conditions in the detention setting. According to applicants, the right of fair trial was breached because their case in Georgia was not discussed by legal court.

More precisely, judgments were passed by public jury in Georgia when this institute had no legal right; but two public juries took part in case discussions.

European Court mentioned in its decisions that institute of public jury in Georgia was not created in accordance to the law, because their activities were not regulated by the law. Georgia had ratified the European Convention of Human Rights which obliged the country to establish the judiciary system in compliance with the principles of the convention.

Consequently, European Court considered that all the decisions made by public juries were illegal and contradicted the Article 6 of the Convention and every person whose case was discussed by public juries can request re-discussion of their cases.

 GHN