Information Note on the Court’s case-law 57

October 2003

Shamayev and Others v. Georgia and Russia (dec.) - 36378/02

Decision 16.9.2003 [Section II]

Article 3

Inhuman treatment

Alleged ill-treatment of detainees of Chechen origin held incommunicado: admissible

Extradition

Extradition to Russia, with risk of capital punishment: admissible

The case concerns an application lodged by 13 men of Chechen origin, aged f rom 22 to 31, who were arrested in August 2002 by the Georgian authorities. In Georgia the applicants had been charged, inter alia, with crossing a border illegally and unlawfully possessing and trading in arms. Numerous charges had also been brought again st them in Russia, certain of which were subject to the death penalty. Five applicants were extradited to Russia in October 2002 after the Russian authorities had provided assurances that they would not be sentenced to death or subjected to treatment in vi olation of Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. Duress was allegedly used during the applicants’ deportation with a view to their extradition; according to the applicants, this resulted in the death of one of their number. The extradited applicants are bein g held in an unidentified pre-trial detention centre (“SIZO”). Seven applicants remain in detention in Georgia.

Admissible under Articles 2, 3, 5 § 1,  § 2 and  § 4, and 6 § 1 and  § 3 (c). The Russian Government’s preliminary objections that the extradit ed applicants had not intended to bring a case before the Court and tht their representation before the Court was not technically valid were joined to the merits. The Russian Government’s objection that the application was anonymous was dismissed. Although the applicants had brought a case to the Court under pseudonyms, the Court noted that the information subsequently provided by the parties made it possible to establish a sufficiently close link between the applicants and the events under dispute. The Cou rt dismissed the Russian Government’s objection that the application was an abuse of the right of petition, on the ground that the complaints were based on actual events, some of which, moreover, were not disputed.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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