The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on December 11 that Georgia violated three rights during the violent dispersal of the June 20-21, 2019, protests in Tbilisi, known as “Gavrilov’s Night.”
In a unanimous judgement, the Court found Georgia in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment, for 24 of the 26 applicants. It also found breaches of Article 10, protecting freedom of expression, for 14 applicants, and Article 11, on freedom of assembly, for 11 applicants. The Court found no violation of Article 38, which concerns a state’s obligation to cooperate with the Court
Five applications – Berikashvili v. Georgia, Kurdovanidze and others v. Georgia, Baghashvili and others v. Georgia, Svanadze v. Georgia, and Tsaava and Kmuzov v. Georgia – were filed with the ECtHR by 26 activists and journalists.
The cases stemmed from protests that erupted after Russian MP Sergei Gavrilov addressed an Inter-parliamentary Assembly from the Georgian Parliament Speaker’s chair, triggering outrage and a night of brutal dispersal on Rustaveli Avenue.
The Court criticized both the operation and the subsequent investigation, saying, “Although the ensuing investigation had already lasted for more than five and a half years, it had not yet resulted in a comprehensive assessment of all the relevant circumstances, nor led to findings or charges in relation to the applicants’ ill-treatment or the identities of the State agents who had used – or ordered the use of – allegedly excessive force agains them,” the court said. “It could not, therefore, be regarded as effective.”
It also said there was “simply no evidence” that the injuries sustained by any of the applicants had been “inevitable consequence of their own conduct,” as the Court noted significant shortcomings in Georgia’s legal framework regulating rubber bullet use and in the manner the demonstration was dispersed.
Journalists, the Court said, were also prevented from covering the events safely, and protesters faced “an unjustified degree of force.”
The Court ordered Georgia to pay two applicants EUR 75,000 each and two others EUR 85,000 in pecuniary damages, awarded all applicants various amounts for non-pecuniary damage, and ordered EUR 38,414 jointly to 22 applicants for costs and expenses.
The ruling follows a May 7 judgment, in which the Court found Georgia failed to conduct an effective investigation into the crackdown. Authorities later in July revived investigative actions, and on November 12, charged former Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia with abuse of power connected to the events. The Tbilisi City Court ordered his detention in absentia the next day.
Responding to the Grand Chamber ruling, the Justice Ministry said it had reviewed the Interior Ministry’s planning and execution of the 2019 operation and that the renewed inquiry had led to criminal proceedings against Gakharia. The investigation, it added, remains ongoing.
Gakharia, now an opposition For Georgia party leader, is in exile after prosecutors opened the investigations. He denied any wrongdoing and previously defended his actions before a temporary parliamentary investigative commission chaired by Tea Tsulukiani.
Also Read:
