Religious Minority Appeals to European Court of Human Rights

(Tbilisi, Civil Georgia, July 23, 2002) – Today 99 victims of attacks by religious extremists, Orthodox clerics and policemen in Georgia filed a total of 30 cases with the European Court of Human Rights.

Jehovah’s Witnesses of Georgia reports that all 30 cases were combined into one application, which sets out the systematic refusal by the Georgian State to prosecute those responsible for the attacks.

One of the 30 cases concerns the violent attack by state officials against a convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses held in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi on September 8, 2000.

Recently Georgian government is harshly criticized by the international society for violating religious minorities’ rights, especially Jehovah’s Witnesses.