European Court repeals recommendation to Georgia not to extradite 8 Chechens to Russia

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2002, 9:16 PM Moscow Time TBILISI.

On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights decided to lift its own moratorium on Georgia's extradition to Russia of eight Chechens detained on the Georgian- Russian border in August. This implies that Georgia and Russia will resolve this issue themselves in line with bilateral and multilateral agreements, Georgian Deputy Justice Minister Georgy Tskrialashvili told the press."Georgia's leaders, and the prosecutor general in particular will make a final decision about the extradition of the Chechens," he said.

Because two of the men are Georgian citizens, their extradition will most probably be out of the question, Tskrialashvili said.

Interfax.

* Webauthor's note: We must remember that inhuman treatment and torture is a quite common and regular practice in Russian's prisons, especially on Chechen detainees. The European Court of "Human Rights" did apparently overlook this "little" detail. Three days later Georgia decided to grant Russia's request and extradite three Chechen rebels who were among a group of militants.