With today's decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declared the interstate application in the case Georgia v. Russia (IV) (the so-called continuing occupation case) fully admissible and once again confirmed that Russia is responsible for the mass violations committed against the population of Georgia, as it continues to exercise effective control over the Tskhinvali region, and on Abkhazia.

The 4th interstate application filed by Georgia against the Russian Federation refers to the administrative practice of Russian officials’ tolerance of mass harassment, arrests, attacks, killings of the Georgian population in the territories occupied by Russia and along the occupation line.

The complex legal positions and evidence of the Government of Georgia on the mentioned case were sent in 2021 and 2022, including material from the national archives; Documented information and statistics about violations of the Russian Federation by Georgian government agencies; Decisions issued by national courts on relevant criminal cases; reports of international organizations; Public statements of representatives of the Russian government; Sources describing the "relationship" between the separatist defacto "authorities" and the Russian Federation (information on the political, financial, military and other types of close ties between them).

It should be noted that the ECHR fully shared the legal position of Georgia with the submitted evidence and recognized all the claims of the Georgian government as admissible.

The Strasbourg Court considered that, at the admissibility stage, there is sufficient evidence to establish that Russia's administrative practice violates the following articles of the European Convention: Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture), Article 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 8 (Right to protection of private and family life), Article 13 (Right to an effective remedy), Article 14 (Prohibition of discrimination), Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights), Articles 1 (Right to property) and 2 (Right to Education) Articles and Protocol 4 of Article 2 (Freedom of Movement).

It should be noted that in the government's application, special attention is paid to the murders of Archil Tatunashvili, Giga Ochtozoria and Davit Basharuli. The Strasbourg Court emphasized that the mentioned cases are illustrative cases of massive human rights violations by Russia and will be considered within the framework of the above-mentioned administrative practice. In addition, it should be emphasized that the ECHR will specifically discuss the factual circumstances of these cases in terms of individual complaints, where the Government of Georgia is involved as a third party and presents a legal position in support of the complainants.

As a result of determining the admissibility of the so-called continuing occupation case will now move the case to the substantive review stage, where the court will examine the mass and specific human rights violations alleged by the Georgian government against Russia.

The Ministry of Justice of Georgia thanks the state agencies, especially the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia, the State Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for their active involvement in the stage of gathering evidence in this case.