ECtHR: Russia partially violated ECHR during deportation of Georgian citizens

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has considered the Georgia's complaint about the mass deportation of Georgian citizens in 2006 and found violation by Russia of several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Now, the parties have a year to discuss the compensation demands and the terms of a possible amicable settlement.

According to the decision of the ECtHR, the Russian Federation had violated Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 (prohibition of collective expulsion of foreigners), Article 3 (prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), Article 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) and Article 38 (the order of the proceedings) of the ECHR.

Earlier, Georgy Matyushkin, the Russia's Deputy Minister of Justice, stressed that Russian authorities "had never carried out and are not planning any discriminatory actions against Georgian citizens on the grounds of nationality and ethnicity," recalls the ITAR-TASS.

Mr Matyushkin has also drawn attention to numerous inconsistencies and factual inaccuracies in the complaint filed by Georgia. In particular, he questioned the accuracy of the statistics provided by the Georgian party.