FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 51247/10
Zaza JAKELI
against Georgia
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 12 May 2105 as a Committee composed of:
Päivi Hirvelä, President,
Nona Tsotsoria,
Krzysztof Wojtyczek, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 5 August 2010,
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
1. The applicant, Mr Zaza Jakeli, is a Georgian national, who was born in 1983 and is detained in Tskaltubo. He was represented before the Court by Ms T. Abazadze, lawyer practising in Tbilisi.
2. The Georgian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr L. Meskhoradze, of the Ministry of Justice.
3. The case mainly concerned the failure of the State to provide the applicant, who was entitled to the mandatory defence due to his mental disorder, with a lawyer at the investigation stage of the criminal proceedings.
4. On 15 September 2014 the application was communicated to the respondent Government under Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (c) of the Convention.
5. By a letter of 27 February 2015 the Government informed the Court that they proposed a friendly settlement with a view to resolving the issues raised in the application. The terms of their proposal read as follows:
“With due regard to the applicant’s claims under the European Convention on Human Rights, the Government of Georgia acknowledge a violation of Article 6 § 3 (c) of the Convention given the failure to provide the applicant with mandatory legal assistance as the investigation stage of the criminal case instituted against him.
Yet the Government highlights that the absence of mandatory legal defence at the investigation stage of the criminal proceedings has not rendered the proceedings unfair as a whole. Remarkably, the applicant’s conviction, apart from his own testimonies, was based inter alia on the eyewitness statements and the statement of the son of the deceased, protocol of detention confirming that material evidence (knife) was seized from the applicant, the biological expertise opinion confirming that the blood group identified on the seized knife was similar to that of the deceased and other evidence in the case file.
In the light of the particular facts of the applicant’s case, the Government of Georgia undertake to pay the applicant 1,500 (one thousand five hundred) euros to cover any and all pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages and costs and expenses, plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicant.
This sum will be converted into national currency of Georgia 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.”
6. By a letter of 30 March 2015 the applicant informed the Court that he was ready to accept the terms of the Government’s friendly settlement proposal, thus agreeing to drop all his claims against them.
THE LAW
7. The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application.
8. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.
Done in English and notified in writing on 4 June 2015.
Fatoş AracıPäivi Hirvelä
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy