Today, the European Court has delivered a judgment on the case Tsaava and Others v. Georgia (no. 13186/20 and 4 others).

The applicants are 26 Georgian nationals. The case concerns the dispersal of a protest on 20-21 June 2019 from the front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi. The protest was sparked by a prominent member of the Russian Duma’s sitting in the Speaker’s chair in the Georgian Parliament and delivering a speech in Russian as part of a session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy. The applicants were either participants in the demonstration, or journalists reporting on the protests.

Relying, explicitly or in substance, on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention, the applicants allege that their injuries were a result of excessive use of force, and that the investigation into this matter was not effective. The applicants also rely on Articles 10 (freedom of expression), 11 (freedom of assembly) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the Convention.

Some of the applicants also allege, under Article 38 (examination of the case), that the Government failed in their duty to proactively inform the Court of developments relevant to their case, in particular new legislation.

The European Court has found violation of Article 3 (ineffective criminal investigation), and no violation of Article 38.