Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) calls on Russia to pay the Government of Georgia 10,000,000 euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage suffered by the group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals, who were the individual victims of the violations.

The Court also found that the Russian authorities had failed to comply with their obligation to furnish all necessary facilities to the Court in its task of establishing the facts of the case (violation of Article 38).

“In its just satisfaction judgment of 31 January 2019, the Grand Chamber held that, within three months, the Russian Federation was to pay the Government of Georgia 10,000,000 euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage suffered by the group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals, who were the individual victims of the violations.

The Court indicated that these amounts should be distributed by the Government of Georgia to the individual victims under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers within 18 months of the date of the payment or within any other period considered appropriate by the Committee of Ministers.

At its 1355th meeting (September 2019) (DH), the Committee for the first time focused its examination on the issue of the payment of the just satisfaction. It noted that the deadline for payment had expired on 30 April 2019, that no payment had been made thus far, underlined that there is an unconditional obligation under Article 46 § 1 of the Convention to pay the just satisfaction awarded by the Court and called upon the Russian authorities to pay without delay the sum awarded together with the default interest accrued.”

In conformity with the decision taken by the Committee at its 1355th meeting, it is proposed to focus on the issue of the payment of the just satisfaction at the present meeting.

“The Committee might wish to reiterate that the obligation to pay just satisfaction awarded by the European Court is unconditional and that the deadline for payment expired on 30 April 2019. Further, it might wish to underline that the Court’s just satisfaction judgment is clear as to the time line for the payment and does not make it conditional on the prior establishment of the payment mechanism.”

The case concerns the arrest, detention, and expulsion from the Russian Federation of large numbers of Georgian nationals from the end of September 2006 until the end of January 2007. In its principal judgment, the Court found that, from October 2006, a coordinated policy of arresting, detaining and expelling Georgian nationals, amounting to administrative practice, had been implemented in the Russian Federation.

This practice led the Court to find six violations concerning:

• the expulsion of Georgian nationals without a reasonable and objective examination of the particular case of each individual (Article 4 of Protocol No. 4);
• arbitrary arrests and detentions of the Georgian nationals (Article 5 § 1 and 13);
• the absence of effective and accessible remedies available to Georgian nationals against the arrests, detentions and expulsion orders (Article 5 § 4);
• Inhuman and degrading conditions of detention in police stations and detention centres for foreigners and a lack of effective remedy regarding the same (Articles 3 and 13).

In 2006 Russia deported 153 citizens of Georgia as a wave of punitive measures against Georgian migrants and businesses grew, prompting criticism that the government is carrying out an ethnically-motivated campaign of harassment.