ECHR Grand Chamber Imposes Georgia to Pay € 4.000 to Ex-PM Merabishvili

The Grand Chamber of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) delivered its verdict over the case of Georgia’s former Prime Minister, Ivane Merabishvili, who is currently in jail, for various charges.

The verdict, made on November 28, imposed the government of Georgia, to pay Merabishvili €4,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage.

The ECHR also said that Pretrial detention of Georgia’s former Prime Minister Vano Merabishvili was justified in the beginning, but later on the predominant purpose became to obtain information on unrelated cases, including the one against former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The ECHR Grand Chamber found that there has been a violation of Article 18, limitation on use of restrictions on rights of the European Convention on Human Rights, taken in conjunction with Article 5 § 1 -right to liberty and security.

However, the verdict reads there had been no violation of Article 5 § 3 (entitlement of a detainee to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial) with regard to his initial placement in pre-trial detention and also no violation of Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) with regard to Merabishvili’s arrest or his pre-trial detention.

“The Court came to the conclusion that it had not been established that Mr Merabishvili’s pre-trial detention had principally been meant to remove him from Georgia’s political scene. However, the Court found his allegations concerning his covert removal from his prison cell and his late-night questioning during his pre-trial detention sufficiently convincing and therefore proven,” the verdict reads.

Ivane Merabishvili served as PM and Interior Minister of Georgia under the previous United National Movement (UNM) government, when Mikheil Saakashvili was a president.

He was arrested in May 2013 after the current ruling Georgian Dream (GD) coalition won the 2012 parliamentary elections. 

In February 2014, a Georgian court found Merabishvili guilty on the charge of exceeding his official power and he was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. 

Ivanishvili claimed he was innocent, adding his pre-trial detention was politically motivated as he was appointed Secretary General of the UNM after the 2012 parliamentary elections and intended to participate in the 2013 Presidential elections. 

The defendant filed a lawsuit to the ECHR, which in June 2016 ruled out that Merabishvili’s pre-trial detention was lawful and based on reasonable grounds however, decided that Georgia was to pay Merabishvili €4,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €8,000 for costs and expenses. 
The decision of compensation was later appealed by the Georgian side but the Grand Chamber upheld the decision of the ECHR, made in June last year.

By Thea Morrison