January 31, 2019 - 3:48 AM
PARIS - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia should pay 10 million euros ($11.5 million) to Georgia over a co-ordinated campaign to arrest and expel hundreds of Georgian citizens in 2006.
The court said Thursday that Russia was sentenced "in respect of non-pecuniary damage suffered by a group of at least 1,500 Georgian nationals."
The court ruled that Russia violated the European Convention of Human Rights by "arresting, detaining and expelling Georgian nationals" ahead of the 2008 war between the two neighbouring countries. The case focused on police roundups of Georgians in the fall of 2006, when bilateral tensions were running high.
The court found that Russian authorities did not allow Georgians enough legal recourse against the arrests and expulsions, and detainees were held in inhumane conditions.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019