On May 23, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a decision that could have a significant impact on the further political fate of former President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. The court refused to grant his appeal, expressing confidence in the fairness of criminal proceedings against him.
Saakashvili's case against Georgia (application No. 6232/20 and No. 22394/20) concerned two separate groups of criminal proceedings against the former President of Georgia.
The first group of proceedings concerned the attack in 2005 on a member of Parliament, and the second - a pardon in 2008 of four former high -ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs convicted of murder. Both proceedings took place after the newly formed government officially announced that the investigation of crimes of the past would be a key priority.
In today's decision in this case, the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously that there were no violations of Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (D) (the right to a fair trial / right to the presence and interrogation of witnesses) of the European Convention on Human Rights in the way in which national courts considered evidence against Saakashvili, or a prune.
The court also resolved 5 votes against 2 that there were no violations of Article 7 (lack of punishment without law) of the European Convention.
"In the specific circumstances of the case, Mr Saakashvili could justify that the use of his right to distort the process of justice in the murder case will be criminally responsible under Georgian law," the court said.
The Court also rejected Saakashvili's unacceptable complaints under Article 18 (restrictions on the use of rights restrictions) of the Convention. The ECtHR found that he did not justify his assertion that there is a hidden motif - obstruction of his participation in Georgian politics - by his criminal prosecution.
“In this regard, the court took into account that the prosecutions against Mr. Saakashvili were serious and justified that the case file contained a significant number of direct and indirect evidence against him, that the national courts conducted a fully competitive process during which his lawyer was able to request all the trial. The way is motivated, ”the ECtHR said.
Recall that last year the European Court of Human Rights rejected as an unacceptable claim of Saakashvili against Ukraine, in which he demanded to recognize the violation of his rights due to the deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship and expulsion.
The ECtHR also refused to consider Saakashvili's complaint on improper treatment of him in a Georgian prison.
