THIRD SECTION
Application no. 65517/09
Nato ORAGVELIDZE and others against Georgia
and 1 other application
(see list appended)
STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. The applicants are Georgian nationals (see the annex). The facts of their cases, as submitted by them, may be summarised as follows.
A. Oragvelidze and Others v. Georgia, no. 65517/09
2. The first applicant is the wife of Mr Ese Baramidze who was born in 1960, and the remaining two applicants are their children (see the annex).
3. On 26 February 2007 Mr Baramidze was detained on remand in relation to criminal proceedings initiated against him for fraud. He was placed in Kutaisi prison no. 2, where, as a result of poor material condition of detention, his state of health rapidly deteriorated. Namely, his diabetes started progressing, whilst the staff of the above-mentioned prison allegedly withheld the requisite treatment from him.
4. Given the poor conditions of detention in Kutaisi prison no. 2, the first applicant arranged, at the end of March 2007, for her husband’s transfer to Batumi prison no. 3, where the conditions were relatively better.
5. By a judgment of 20 April 2007, the Lanchkhuti District Court found Mr Baramidze guilty of fraud and sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment with additional three years on probation.
6. On 21 April 2007, given a drastic deterioration of Mr Baramidze’s health, he was transferred from the prison to a hospital in Batumi, where, on 23 April 2007, among other treatment, his lower limb was amputated. Despite that treatment, Mr Baramidze died in the hospital later the same day.
7. On 31 May 2007 the prison authority served the first applicant with a death certificate, according to which her husband had died as a result of severe deterioration of blood vessels.
8. According to the case file, subsequently, on an unspecified date, the relevant investigative unit of the Ministry of Justice, the authority in charge of prisons at the material time, opened an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Baramidze’s death.
9. Subsequently, starting as of June 2007, the first applicant repeatedly enquired with various authorities about the investigation’s progress, complaining about her husband’s death in prison. Her enquires were then circulated, in the period between 22 June and 13 July 2007, between various authorities, including the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor’s Office.
10. According to the case file, the investigation into Mr Baramidze’s death is still pending. No other details about these proceedings are known.
B. Kekelashvili v. Georgia, no. 35861/11
11. The applicant is the sister of Mr Sergo Kekelashvili.
12. Mr Kekelashvili was born in 1950 and died in prison on 22 February 2010 as a result of peritonitis (inflammation of the abdomen tissue), the consequent sepsis and certain other serious diseases relating to deterioration and intoxication of his blood vessels. The death occurred despite the fact that Mr Kekelashvili had been transferred on 17 February 2010 to the prison hospital where a surgery for removal of purulence from his abdomen had been performed.
13. Between April and June 2010 the applicant repeatedly requested various relevant authorities to provide her with a copy of her brother’s medical file in its entirety, which were to account for the treatment provided to him in all the custodial medical institutions where he had been placed from the beginning of his detention until his death. Her request was granted only in part, as she was provided with the medical documents corresponding to the last months of her brother’s life.
14. On 6 July 2010 the applicant requested the General Prosecutor’s Office to open a criminal investigation into her brother’s death in prison. By a reply of 23 July 2010, the Didube-Chughureti district prosecutor informed the applicant that such a criminal case had already been opened and that the investigation was underway.
15. On 30 November 2010 and 2 May 2011 the applicant enquired about the investigation’s progress and was repeatedly advised, by the district prosecutor’s replies of 2 December 2010 and 26 May 2011, that the investigation was still pending and that the situation was under control.
COMPLAINTS
The applicants mainly complained under Article 2 of the Convention that their relatives had died in prison as a result of insufficient medical treatment and that the State had failed to account for those deaths by conducting adequate investigations.
CASE SPECIFIC QUESTION
1. As regards application no. 65517/09, were the applicants’ complaints under Article 2 of the Convention lodged with the Court with the expedition required by the six-month rule laid down in Article 35 § 1 of the Convention (see, for instance, Manukyan v. Georgia (dec.), no. 53073/07, §§ 29-33, 9 October 2012)?
COMMON QUESTIONS
1. Did the respondent State took all reasonable measures, including adequate medical treatment, to protect the applicants’ relatives’ lives in prison, as required by Article 2 of the Convention (see, for instance, Makharadze and Sikharulidze v. Georgia, no. 35254/07, § 74, 22 November 2011)?
2. Furthermore, did the respondent State conduct adequate enquiries into the causes of the deaths of the applicants’ relatives in prison, as required by the procedural obligation emanating from Article 2 of the Convention (idem, §§ 74 and 89)?
APPENDIX
No.
Application
no.
Lodged on
Applicant name
date of birth
place of residence
Represented by
Additional complaints
65517/09
10/11/2009
Mrs Nato ORAGVELIDZE
(“the first applicant”)
15/07/1971
Village Gvimbalauri.
Ms Nino BARAMIDZE
(“the second applicant”)
07/08/1993
Village Gvimbalauri.
Mr Tengiz BARAMIDZE
(“the third applicant”)
19/12/1994
Village Gvimbalauri.
Ms Lia MUKHASHAVRIA.
The complaint about the absence of an effective investigation into the death of Mr Ese Baramidze was reiterated under Article 13 of the Convention taken in conjunction with Article 2.
35861/11
08/06/2011
Tamar KEKELASHVILI
07/03/1951
Gori.
Mr Mamuka NOZADZE.
The complaint about the absence of an effective investigation into the death of Mr Sergo Kekelashvili was reiterated under Articles 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention.
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