CAT/C/70/D/915/2019
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
20 January 2021
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 915/2019*, **
Communication submitted by:
Z.S. (represented by counsel, Kakhaber
Tsereteli)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Georgia
Date of complaint:
3 January 2019 (initial submission)
Date of adoption of decision:
30 December 2020
Subject matter:
Extradition to the Russian Federation
Procedural issues:
Non-exhaustion of domestic remedies; abuse of
the right to submit a complaint; nonsubstantiation of claims
Substantive issue:
Non-refoulement
Article of the Convention:
3
1.1
The complainant is Z.S., a national of the Russian Federation born in 1984, who at the
time of submission was in detention awaiting extradition from Georgia to the Russian
Federation. The complainant claims that his return to the Russian Federation would be in
breach of Georgia’s obligations under article 3 of the Convention. He is represented by
counsel. The State party has made the declaration under article 22 of the Convention,
effective from 30 June 2005.
1.2
On 14 January 2019, pursuant to rule 114 of its rules of procedure, the Committee,
acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints and interim measures, decided not to issue
a request for interim measures of protection.
Facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant worked as a prosecutor at the Prosecutor’s Office of Obninsk in
Kaluga Province of the Russian Federation. He claims to have been unlawfully convicted and
sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and a fine of 12 million Russian roubles as a result of
his anti-corruption activities in several high-profile investigations, in which he challenged
illegal activities and interests of local officials in Kaluga. Due to their contacts and influence
in the Prosecutor’s Office, the officials managed to avoid corruption charges. The persons
concerned were closely associated with the Governor of Kaluga Province and the Provincial
Prosecutor, whose father is the Deputy Prosecutor-General of the Russian Federation. The
* Adopted by the Committee intersessionally on 30th December 2020.
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Essadia Belmir, Claude Heller, Erdogan Iscan, Liu Huawen, Jens Modvig, Ilvija Puce, Diego
Rodríguez-Pinzón, Sébastien Touzé and Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov.
GE.21-00728(E)