Bekauri v. Georgia (preliminary objection)

Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 151April 2012Bekauri v. Georgia (preliminary objection) - 14102/02Judgment 10.4.2012 [Section II]Article 35Article 35-3Abuse of the right of petitionFailure of applicant’s representatives to submit observations or to inform the Court of crucial events in his case: preliminary objection allowed Facts – The applicant was convicted to life imprisonment for murdering a police officer. After communicating the application in 2005, the applicant’s lawyer did not submit any observations on his behalf despite being granted extensions of time for doing so. Even after the applicant appointed new lawyers to represent him in 2006, they failed to submit any observations. After the case was declared admissible in 2010, the Government informed the Court that the applicant’s sentence had been commuted to sixteen years’ imprisonment.              Law – Article …