In the June 20 case, the European Court of Human Rights shared arguments of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and found a violation of Article 3 - prohibition of torture. In favor of the petitioners, the court ordered the state to pay 153,600 euros as compensation to the persons found to be in violation. The court also noted that the state did not conduct an effective investigation that would have established the responsibility of the relevant persons in this case, GYLA Chairperson Nona Kurdovanidze said at the briefing, which was related to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the actions on June 20, 2019.

According to her, the state did not properly assess the responsibility of the responsible persons.

"This is a very important case that combines the factual circumstances of 26 people. These people were victims of the events of June 20-21, 2019. The interests of 22 of them were represented by GYLA in the European Court of Human Rights together with the European Human Rights Advocacy Center. Among the 22 people are: 10 participants of the peaceful protest, 11 representatives of the media and one person accidentally found in the epicenter of the events.

The appellants disputed the violations of Article 3 (prohibition of torture), Article 10 (freedom of expression - only in the case of media representatives), Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association - in the case of demonstrators) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention.

GYLA thoroughly studied the events of June 20-21, 2019, obtained evidence and stated before the European Court of Human Rights that the following violations were present: use of illegal and disproportionate force; ill-treatment during the detention and subsequent period; interference in journalistic activities; ineffectiveness of the investigation, which was manifested among them, in the protracted investigation, in the problems of assigning victim status, etc.

The European Court of Human Rights shared arguments of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and found a violation of Article 3 - prohibition of torture. In favor of the petitioners, the court ordered the state to pay 153,600 euros as compensation to the persons found to be in violation. The court also noted that the state did not conduct an effective investigation that would have established the responsibility of the relevant persons in this case.

The court noted that after four and a half years, the investigation did not reach any conclusion; The state did not properly assess the responsibility of the responsible persons, despite the fact that the mentioned persons were directly mentioned in the recommendations of the Public Defender. According to the court, the state did not conduct a systemic analysis of the events. There is no official complete account of the chronology of events and the crackdown operation, which is also a significant challenge.

It is the state's obligation to make sure during such a large-scale police operation that the law enforcement officers who are suspected of violence are identifiable, which is also a problem in this case," said Nona Kurdovanidze.

According to her, if the state does not effectively implement the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights, it will have a negative impact on Georgia, as a country that does not respect its decisions.

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