STRASBOURG: The European rights court Tuesday ordered Russia to pay Georgia over a quarter of a billion euros for preventing people from crossing freely into the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which Moscow recognised as independent after the 2008 war with Tbilisi.The European Court of Human Rights said Russia had committed violations including excessive use of force, ill-treatment, unlawful detention and unlawful restrictions on day-to-day movement across the administrative boundary line between Georgian-controlled territory and the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian regions.The Strasbourg-based court ordered Moscow to pay just over 253 million euros for the harm suffered by more than 29,000 victims. Moscow quit the ECHR in 2022 in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine but the court says it remains liable for any violations committed before then.
