ECHR Postpones Visit to Georgia Over Chechens Extradition Case

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) postponed the fact-finding visits of its representatives to Georgia and Russia, scheduled for the last week of October.

The fact-finding missions in the case of Shamayev and Others v. Georgia and Russia, aims at taking evidence from the applicants who had been extradited to Russia and from those who are in custody in Georgia.

Last August Georgia detained group of 13 men, 11 Chechens and 2 Georgian citizens who infiltrated into Georgia from Russia. Georgia charged them for illegal crossing the border and carrying weapons. Russia demanded their extradition, claiming detainees were Chechen militants. Later Georgia extradited five of them, while others avoided extradition as they appealed the Georgian court protesting against extradition.

13 alleged militants also appealed the ECHR claiming that their extradition to Russian, where capital punishment has not been abolished, exposes them to a real risk of death or torture, would be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Following the hearing in this on 16 September, the ECHR declared the application admissible and decided to dispatch fact-finding missions to Georgia and Russia.

“In a fax of 3 October 2003, the Georgian Government asked the Court to adjourn the mission to Georgia, in view of the general election to be held there on 2 November 2003 and the authorities’ concern to ensure absolute security for the members of the delegation. The Court noted that request and decided to adjourn its mission to Georgia,” the ECHR’s press release issued on October 24 reads.

“In addition, the Government of the Russian Federation informed the Court on 20 October 2003 that the Stavropol Regional Court, within whose jurisdiction the five extradited applicants are currently detained, had refused to give the delegation access to the applicants at this stage in the domestic proceedings,” the ECHR states.

However the ECHR warned the Russian authorities that the issue of access to the applicants is a matter of international law – in particular the European Convention on Human Rights, which, under Russian law, takes precedence over domestic law – and, therefore, falls to be decided solely by the European Court of Human Rights.

The fact-finding mission is now scheduled to take place in both countries at the beginning of 2004 on a date that will shortly be communicated to both Governments.