European Court on Human Rights adjourned fact-finding visits of its representatives to Georgia and Russia in the case of detained Chechens

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) postponed fact-finding visits of its representatives to Georgia and Russia, scheduled for the last week of October.

The fact-finding missions in the case of Shamayev and Others v. Georgia and Russia, aim at taking evidence from the applicants who had been extradited to Russia and from those who are in custody in Georgia.

Last August Georgian frontier guards detained a group of 13 men, 11 Chechens and 2 Georgian citizens, near the Russian-Georgian border.

Georgia charged them with illegal crossing of the border and contraband of weapons. Russia demanded their extradition, claiming detainees were Chechen militants. Later Georgia extradited five of them, while others were left on the Georgian territory.

The detained Chechens appealed to the ECHR. They claim their extradition to Russia, where capital punishment has not been abolished, exposes them to a real risk of death or torture and violates the European Convention on Human Rights. Following the hearing in this case on September 16, the ECHR declared the application admissible and decided to dispatch fact-finding missions to Georgia and Russia.

"In a fax of October 3, 2003, the Georgian Government asked the Court to adjourn the mission to Georgia, in view of the general election to be held there on 2 November 2003 and the authorities' concern to ensure absolute security for the members of the delegation. The Court noted that request and decided to adjourn its mission to Georgia," the ECHR?s press release issued on October 24 reads.

"In addition, the Government of the Russian Federation informed the Court on 20 October 2003 that the Stavropol Regional Court, within whose jurisdiction the five extradited applicants are currently detained, had refused to give the delegation access to the applicants at this stage in the domestic proceedings," the ECHR states.

It is noteworthy that the ECHR informed the Russian authorities that the issue of access to the applicants is a matter of international law - in particular the European Convention on Human Rights, which, under Russian law, takes precedence over domestic law.

The fact-finding mission is now scheduled to take place in both countries at the beginning of 2004.