A protest on 19 January in Baku calling for freedom for ‘political prisoners’. (Fargana Novruzova)
Despite the European Court of Human Rights awarding compensation to dozens of activists and opposition figures in Azerbaijan, many say the government is not paying up. [Read more…]
Georgian citizens descending from a cargo plane after being expelled from Russia in 2006 (GPB)
The Russian Federation must pay Georgia €10 million ($11.5 million) in compensation for the damages suffered by more than 1,500 Georgian nationals who were arrested, detained, and collectively expelled from Russia in 2006, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled. [Read more…]
Abutalib Shakhruyev (OC Media)
A man from the Russian Republic of Daghestan has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over torture he says he was subjected to at Daghestan’s Centre for Countering Extremism. Abutalib Shakhruyev was sentenced to 11 years in prison in March for ‘aiding and financing members of illegal armed formations’. [Read more…]
Intigam Aliyev (/Amnesty International)
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday that Azerbaijan’s arrest and conviction of Intigam Aliyev were politically motivated, aimed to ‘silence and to punish’ him for his human rights work. The Azerbaijani human rights lawyer was a loud critic of the authorities accusing them of cracking down on independent lawyers in Azerbaijan and using repressive tactics during 2010 parliamentary elections.
Jehovah's Witnesses in Prokhladny (Caucasian Knot)
A Jehovah’s Witness from the Kabardino-Balkarian town of Maysky is on trial in Prokhladny District Court for ‘inciting religious hatred’ and ‘calling to extremist activity’. Yury Zalipayev faces up to five years in prison if convicted. [Read more…]
European Court of Human Rights (Wikipedia Commons)
Georgia has filed a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for ‘wide-scale practices of harassment, detention, assault and murder on the Russian-occupied territories of Georgia’. While Georgia argued that such practices had ‘intensified since the 2008 war’ reaching a ‘critical point’ with the February killing of Archil Tatunashvili, South Ossetian officials dismissed the move as ‘an absurd propaganda action’. [Read more…]
Mehman Huseynov (azadliq.org)
Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by blogger Mehman Huseynov on Monday, upholding his prison sentence for defamation. His lawyer, Fuad Aghayev, said he intends to take the case to European Court of Human Rights. Huseynov did not attend the hearing as a sign of protest. [Read more…]
1 March 2008 protests in Yerevan (Wikicommons)
Armenia’s parliament is to discuss an opposition resolution seeking ‘justice’ for those killed during a violent crackdown on protests in 2008, RFE/RL’s Armenian service Azatutyun reports. The resolution comes ten years after the deadly Yerevan protests, while a case into the matter at the ECHR is still pending. [Read more…]
Vano Merabishvili (/InterPressNews)
The European Human Rights Advocacy Centre assist NGOs and lawyers in Russia, the Caucasus, and Ukraine take cases to the European Court of Human Rights.
On 28 November 2017, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled in the hotly awaited case of the detention of Ivane Merabishvili, the former Georgian Prime Minister and Interior Minister. The judgment, the second on the case after the Georgian Government challenged the first, had been the subject of much interest in Georgia and abroad. This is hardly surprising not only given Merabishvili’s previous life in Georgian politics, but also the global phenomenon of politically-motivated proceedings.
Vano Merabishvili (interpressnews)
The Grand Chamber of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Georgian authorities violated two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights in their treatment of former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili while in detention. However, the court stopped short of ruling that the charges against him were politically motivated, as Merabishvili’s lawyers claimed. [Read more…]
