6 September 2024
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond doubt that the Georgian Government abducted investigative journalist Afgan Mukhtarli and handed him over to Azerbaijan.
Mukhtarli, a prominent journalist known for investigating official corruption in Azerbaijan, disappeared from the streets of Tbilisi on the night of 29 May 2017. He reappeared in Azerbaijani custody a day later and was charged with illegally crossing the border.
In its judgment on Thursday, the ECHR did rule that the Georgian Government had violated the European Convention’s prohibition on torture and right to liberty due to its ‘failure to carry out an effective investigation into [Mukhtarli’s] allegations of abduction, ill-treatment, and unlawful transfer to Azerbaijan’.
The court ordered the Georgian Government to pay €10,000 ($11,000) in compensation.
The court also ruled that because there was insufficient evidence that Mukhtarli was abducted and forcibly transferred to Azerbaijan, it could not rule that his detention by Azerbaijan was unlawful.
However, it did rule that Azerbaijan’s failure to give ‘relevant and sufficient reasons’ to justify his pretrial detention was a violation of his right to liberty and security, ordering Azerbaijan to pay him €6,000 ($6,700) in compensation.
While the court said there was insufficient evidence that the Georgian Government was directly or indirectly involved in Mukhtarli’s abduction, they did note that his account of his alleged abduction was ‘detailed and specific, and remained consistent throughout the investigation and also in the proceedings before the Court.’
‘The Court finds plausible the position of the applicant according to which he would not have travelled to Azerbaijan voluntarily’, the ruling stated.
Mukhtarli has said he was detained by four men, three of whom were wearing Georgian police uniforms, before being taken in several cars to Azerbaijan.
He claimed to have later recognised the head of Georgian counterintelligence, Giorgi Trapaidze, as being among his abductors.
Following his arrest in July 2022, Soso Gogashvili, a former deputy director of Georgia’s State Security Service (SSG), alleged that Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili had personally ordered the abduction.
The investigation in Georgia has faced widespread criticism from local and international rights groups, including allegations that CCTV footage showing the abduction were doctored.
Following Thursday’s ruling, Mukhtarli told OC Media he was satisfied that the ruling acknowledged that his abduction had not been properly investigated despite all of his complaints not being upheld.
He said he was confident that the perpetrators of his abduction would be brought to justice after a change in government in Georgia.
‘I know my demands will not be realised during Ivanishvili’s rule, because there is no longer an independent judiciary in Georgia and there are no longer independent law enforcement agencies’, he said.
‘I hope that after the elections in Georgia, the government will change and the desire of Georgians to integrate into Europe will be realised.’
‘And I believe this will come to pass because I saw the people demonstrating against the Russian law’, he added.
