Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 47
November 2002
Assanidze v. Georgia (dec.) - 71503/01
Decision 12.11.2002 [Section II]
Article 5
Article 5-1
Lawful arrest or detention
Continued detention ordered by authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Ajaria despite pardon by the President of Georgia in a first case and acquittal by the Georgian central courts in a subsequent case: admissible
In November 1994, the applicant was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by the judicial authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Adjaria, a republic forming part of Georgia. By order of October 1999, the President of the Georgian Republic pardoned the applicant and suspended the two years of the sentence which remained to be served. In November 1999, the Supreme Court of the Autonomous Republic of Adjaria declared the presidential order illegal. That judgment was set aside by the Supreme Court of Georgia at the end of December 1999. In the meantime, the applicant, who was still in prison, was accused of assisting in the organisation of a group of criminals and of kidnapping. At the end of December 1999, a court of first instance of the Autonomous Republic of Adjaria formally ordered that he be placed in preventive detention. At the beginning of October 2000, the applicant was convicted by the Supreme Court of the Autonomous Republic of Adjaria. The applicant appealed on a point of law to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The authorities took a number of steps, without success, to have the applicant transferred from the Autonomous Republic of Adjaria, where he was being held, to Tbilisi for the date of the hearing. At the end of January 2001, the Supreme Court of Georgia, dealing with the matter in absentia, set aside the judgment of October 2000, discharged the applicant and ordered his immediate release. The local authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Adjaria had not complied with that decision. The authorities of the central authority of Georgia have on several occasions declared that the applicant's detention by the Adjarian authorities is illegal.
Admissible under Article 5 §§ 1, 3 and 4, Article 6 § 1, Article 10 and Article 13 of the Convention and Article 2 of Protocol No. 4.
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