CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 16 avril 2009

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s40F41F73 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .s69BE285C { margin-top:0pt; margin-left:85.05pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-85.05pt } .s9A223E1B { width:11.03pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s595A57E4 { width:85.05pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s3CA22BA { font-family:Arial; text-transform:uppercase } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   315 16.4.2009   Press release issued by the Registrar   CHAMBER HEARING GEORGIA v. RUSSIA (No. 1)   The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Chamber hearing today Thursday 16 April 2009 at 9 a.m. , on the admissibility and merits in the case of Georgia v. Russia (No.1) (application no. 13255/07). The case concerns the alleged harassment of the Georgian immigrant population in the Russian Federation following the arrest in Tbilisi on 27 September 2006 of four Russian service personnel on suspicion of espionage against Georgia. Eleven Georgian nationals were also arrested on the same charges. The four Russian servicemen were subsequently released by executive act of clemency.   The hearing will be broadcast from 2.30 p.m. on the Court’s Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).   ***   On 26 March 2007 the Georgian authorities lodged with the Court’s Registry an application against the Russian Federation under Article 33 (Inter-State cases) of the European Convention on Human Rights.   The applicant Government maintain that the reaction of the Russian authorities to the incident in September 2006 amounted to an administrative practice of the official authorities giving rise to specific and continuing breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols under the following provisions: Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment), Article 5 (right to liberty), Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life), Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination), Article 18 (limitation on the use of restrictions on rights) of the Convention; Articles 1 (protection of property) and 2 (right to education) of Protocol No. 1; Article   4 (prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens) of Protocol No. 4 and Article 1 (procedural safeguards relating to expulsion of aliens) of Protocol No. 7.   These breaches are said to derive, in particular, from widespread arrests and detention of the Georgian immigrant population in the Russian Federation creating a generalised threat to security of the person and multiple, arbitrary interferences with the right to liberty. The Georgian Government also complain of the conditions in which “at least 2,380 Georgians” had been detained. They assert that the collective expulsion of Georgians from the Russian Federation involved a systematic and arbitrary interference with these persons’ legitimate right to remain in Russia – a right duly evidenced by regular documents – as well as with the requirements of due process and statutory appeal process. In addition closing the land, air and maritime border between the Russian Federation and Georgia, thereby interrupting all postal communication, allegedly frustrated access to remedies for the persons affected.   Composition of the Court   The case will be heard by a Chamber composed as follows:   Peer Lorenzen (Denmark), President , Rait Maruste (Estonia), Karel Jungwiert (the Czech Republic), Anatoly Kovler (Russia), Renate Jaeger (Germany), Mark Villiger (Liechtenstein), Nona Tsotsoria (Georgia), judges , Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska (“The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”), Zdravka Kalaydjieva (Bulgaria), Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre (Monaco), substitute judges , and also Claudia Westerdiek , Section Registrar .   Representatives of the parties   Respondent Government :   Georgy Matyushkin , Representative of the Government,   Natalia Yakovlevna Zyabkina , First Vice Head of the Representative’s Office,   Irina Sergeievna Koganova , Egor Andreievich Shipitsyn , Yana Yurievna Zimbalova , Vladislav Kimovich Ermakov , Irina Vladimirovna Volkhonskaya , Andrey Yuriyevich Rodin , Dmitry Pavlovich Demidenko , Tatiana Viktorovna Ryabchikova , Advisers ;   Applicant Government :   Tina Burjaliani , First Deputy Minister of Justice ,   Levan Meskhoradze , Agent ,   Shorena Mezurnishvili , Tamar Tomashvili , Advisers.   After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which are held in private. A decision on admissibility, followed if appropriate by a judgment, will be delivered at a later date [1] .   Press contacts Stefano Piedimonte (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Paramy Chanthalangsy (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 28 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. [1] This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.