Published on 30 January 2023

FIFTH SECTION

Application no. 3919/21 Merab MEREBASHVILI and Lali JIOSHVILI against Georgia lodged on 30 December 2020 communicated on 11 January 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns domestic authorities’ alleged failure to conduct an adequate criminal investigation into the circumstances preceding their son’s death, in breach of the procedural obligations under Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. According to the applicants, there had been credible allegations, supported by various facts, that the victim might have been killed as a result of violent acts committed by private parties – during a fight with other young men, which the applicant’s son had reported himself via an emergency telephone number shortly before his death – and that his dead body had then been placed on a highway with the malicious intent to disguise the homicide as a road-traffic accident.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

Having regard to the procedural protection of the right to life (see Salman v. Turkey [GC], no. 21986/93, § 104, ECHR 2000-VII), was the investigation in the present case by the domestic authorities in breach of Articles 2 and/or 3 of the Convention? In particular, have the authorities complied with their obligation to follow all credible lines of inquiry advanced by the applicants and thus to establish all the circumstances of the case and all the people responsible (see Tsintsabadze v. Georgia , no. 35403/06, §§ 87-95, 15 February 2011).