ECHR Launches Consideration of Machalikashvili Case

Civil.ge

5 years ago

Human Rights and Monitoring Center (EMC), a local human rights watchdog, announced today that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has launched consideration of the lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of Temirlan Machalikashvili, an eighteen-year-old resident of Georgia’s Muslim-majority Pankisi gorge, who was shot dead during an anti-terror operation by special police forces in December 2017.

The case has been filed under three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights: right to life (article 2); prohibition of torture (article 3) and right to an effective remedy (article 13).

The Machalikashvili family filed a lawsuit to the ECHR on June 5.

EMC reported that according to ECHR’s new practice, the parties are given a 12-week term to agree on “a friendly settlement procedure.” If the parties fail to reach an agreement, the government will have to submit its opinions on the circumstances outlined in the lawsuit within additional 12-week term.

Along with EMC, the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), an international group of lawyers overseen from the UK, will also represent the Machalikashvili family in Strasbourg.

18-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili was shot in the head in the process of his detention in December 2017. Machalikashvili died of his injuries in January 2018 in a Tbilisi hospital. According to the State Security Service of Georgia (SSG), he attempted to resist the security forces and tried to detonate a hand grenade, to which the SSG operatives responded with “proportional force.” Machalikashvili’s family denies this and claims he was asleep when officers entered his room and opened fire.

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