Georgian government to obey to ECtHR's decision on Girgvliani's murder case

The Georgian government did not appeal against the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg on the lawsuit "Enukidze and Girgvliani vs. Georgia" and intends to follow the ruling. This was reported today by Khatuna Iosava, Chief of the Public Relations Office of the Georgian Ministry of Justice.

The ECtHR has obliged the government of Georgia to pay 50,000 euros to Sandro Girgviliani's family. The court found violation of Articles 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which stipulates respect for the right to life, and 38 of the ECHR, which stipulates the state's obligation to cooperate with the court in establishing facts.

The deadline to appeal against the decision was July 26, the "News-Georgia" reports.

Girgvliani was killed on January 27, 2005, in the forest of Okrokan, where he had been tortured. The suspects in the murder, four agents of the Constitutional Security Department, were detained in early 2006 and sentenced to terms ranging from 7 to 8 years of imprisonment; however, later, in 2009, they were released under the amnesty decree, signed by the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Girgvliani's family members filed a complaint to the ECtHR; they believed that the court punished only the actual executors of the murder, while the real customers – the top-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) (according to the version of relatives and the opposition) – managed to escape punishment.

According to David Djandieri, a lawyer for the Girgvliani family, in three months the ECtHR's decision will be sent for execution to the Executive Board of the court, where specific measures on the case will be decided, the "Georgia Today" reports.

Sandro Girgvliani's murder caused a huge resonance in Georgia; and in this connection the opposition demanded resignation of Vano Merabishvili, Minister of Internal Affairs. When the Georgian authorities refused to dismiss him, the parliamentary opposition boycotted the parliamentary sessions for six months.