The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia violated the right to life and the prohibition of torture in connection with eight Georgian prisoners of war from the 2008 war, ordering Moscow to pay compensation to victims’ families and surviving servicemen.

The judgment, delivered on June 23 in the joined cases of Malachini and Others v. Russia and Chikviladze and Antsukhelidze v. Russia, found breaches of both the substantive and procedural aspects of Article 2 (right to life) and Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Who the cases concerned

Article 2 covered the deaths in custody of three Georgian servicemen: Ushangi Sopromadze, Kakhaber Khubuluri, and Giorgi Antsukhelidze, who was later named a national hero of Georgia. Article 3 covered the torture of those three men and five others who survived detention: Davit Malachini, Zaza Kavtiashvili, Imeda Kutashvili, Malkhaz Meladze, and Kakhaber Zirakashvili.

The applications were lodged in 2009 and 2010. The families of the three killed POWs and the five survivors were represented by the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and the Stichting Justice Initiative, with the Georgian government participating as a third-party intervener. The ruling came nearly 18 years after the events.

What the Court found

The Court concluded that Russia exercised effective control over South Ossetia during the period in question and bore responsibility for how the prisoners were treated, including conduct by South Ossetian forces. It found that the ill-treatment caused severe pain and suffering and amounted to torture under the Convention, noting the special protected status of prisoners of war under international humanitarian law.

Evidence cited in the ruling included Russian military presence at detention sites in Tskhinvali, interrogations by Russian servicemen, and witness accounts that prisoners were beaten, burned and forced to walk on the Georgian flag. The Court also found that Russia failed to carry out an effective investigation into the killings and abuse.

Compensation and enforcement

Russia was ordered to pay non-pecuniary damages within three months of the judgment becoming final: €65,000 jointly to the wife and children of each of the three killed servicemen, and €40,000 each to the surviving applicants.

It remains unclear whether the awards will be enforced. Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in 2022 and later adopted legislation refusing to execute ECtHR judgments. Moscow has for years failed to comply with other rulings from the Strasbourg court.

Tamar Oniani, chair of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, called the decision a historic day, noting it was among the first individual cases since the 2021 interstate judgment in Georgia v. Russia II in which the Court examined Russia’s jurisdiction over prisoners of war rather than declining to assess conduct during hostilities.