Criminal conviction of former chairman of Georgia’s aviation agency was not based on sufficient reasons

In today’s Chamber judgment1 in the case of Tchankotadze v. Georgia (application no. 15256/05) the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held, unanimously, that there had been:

a violation of Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and

a violation of Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial).

The case concerned the pre-trial detention of the former the chairperson of the Civil Aviation Agency (CAA) of Georgia and his criminal conviction of abuse of power. The ECtHR observed that the Georgian authorities had prosecuted Mr Tchankotadze for his failure to abide by a judgment of the Constitutional Court of January 2003, which had allegedly banned the CAA from charging any fees to civil aviation companies. However, the ECtHR noted in particular that, having regard to the reasoning of the January 2003 judgment, it could not be concluded that the Constitutional Court had entirely forbidden the CAA from entering into service agreements with civil

aviation companies. The ECtHR therefore found it difficult to understand that the trial court, when convicting Mr Tchankotadze, had not given any meaningful answer to his defence argument that he had merely followed the Constitutional Court’s indication to enter into such contractual relationships.

See the judgment