THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no . 25120/07 Giorgi VASHAKIDZE and Eldar GOGBERASHVILI against Georgia

The European Court of Human Rights ( Third Section ), sitting on 28 January 2014 as a Committee composed of:

Ján Šikuta, President, Luis López Guerra, Nona Tsotsoria, judges, and Marialena Tsirli , Deputy Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 19 April 2007 ,

Having regard to the declarations submitted by the parties on 13 December 2013 accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

1 . Th e applicants, Mr Giorgi Vashakidze and Mr Eldar Gogberashvili , are Georgian nationals, who were born in 1967 and 1970 respectively and are currently in prison . They were represented before the Court by Ms M. Tvauri , a lawyer practising in Tbilisi .

2. The Georgian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr L. Meskhoradze of the Ministry of Justice .

3. On 7 May 2013 the Court gave notice to the Government of the applicants ’ complaints under Articles 3 and 6 §§ 1 and 3 of the Convention.

4. On 13 December 2013 the Court received a friendly settlement declaration signed by both parties, which reads as follows:

“... The Government of Georgia acknowledges a violation of Article 6 of the Convention on account of domestic courts ’ reference to the second applicant ’ s [ Eldar Gogberashvili ] self-incriminatory statement while establishing the charges against both applicants;

The applicants are entitled to address the domestic courts with a request to re-open their criminal case under Article 310 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia;

The Government will pay 4,000 (four thousand) euros to each applicant to cover any and all pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.

This sum will be converted into Georgian laris at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court to strike the case out of its list of cases. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertake to pay simple interest on it, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the case.

The applicants hereby agree to waive the remaining claims under the present application.”

LAW

5. The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the matter has been resolved within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (b) of the Convention and that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols does not require it to continue the examination of the application under Article 37 § 1 in fine .

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.

Marialena Tsirli Ján Šikuta Deputy Registrar President