The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) published its judgment in the case of Mamasakhlisi and Others v. Georgia and Russia over the human rights violations in Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia region.

The court ruled that Russia violated three articles, while found no violations by Georgia. “Russia is responsible for unlawful arrests, ill-treatment and detention of two vulnerable men by the de-facto Abkhaz authorities,” the court said in its judgment.

The two applicants Levan Mamasakhlisi and Grigol Nanava filed lawsuits in court in 2004 over their illegal detentions in 2001 and 2003, ill-treatment, trials and unlawful arrests by the de-facto Abkhazian authorities.

The Court decided that “Russia was to pay Mr Mamasakhlisi and Mr Nanava 35,000 euros (EUR) each in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 23,300 jointly in respect of costs and expenses.”

As “Russia had exercised effective control over Abkhazia during the period in question due to its military, economic and political support,” the Court considered that Russia was responsible for the violation of Article 3 in respect of both applicants.

The Court considered that the “Georgian Government had done everything within its power to secure Mr Mamasakhlisi’s and Mr Nanava’s rights under the Convention but had come up against the persistent refusals of the de facto Abkhaz authorities to cooperate and the inactivity of the Russian authorities to take necessary action to address the complaints once they had been notified of them.”