issued by the Registrar of the Court
ECHR 123 (2025)
20.05.2025
Judgments of 20 May 2025
The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing five judgments1:
two Chamber judgments are summarised below;
a separate press release has been issued for another Chamber judgment in the case of Russ
v. Germany (application no. 44241/20);
two Committee judgments, concerning issues which have already been examined by the Court, can
be consulted on Hudoc and do not appear in this press release.
The judgments summarised below are available only in English.
Matchavariani v. Georgia (application no. 46852/21)
The applicant, Aleksi Matchavariani, is a Georgian national who was born in 1977 and lives in Tbilisi.
He is a civil-society activist.
The case concerns Mr Matchavariani’s administrative detention and subsequent conviction for
attempting to take firewood to a demonstration planned in Tbilisi on 9 November.
Relying on Articles 5 (right to liberty and security), 6 (right to a fair hearing), 10 (freedom of expression)
and 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention on Human Rights,
Mr Matchavariani complains that his arrest and detention while the administrative proceedings were
pending were arbitrary and unlawful, that he was unable to obtain the attendance of witnesses on his
behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him, that the trial court actively aided the police
in presenting and substantiating their case against him, thereby breaching the principle of equality of
arms and objective impartiality, and that his arrest and administrative-offence conviction had
breached his rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
Violation of Article 5 § 1
No violation of Article 6 § 1 on account of the impartiality requirement
Just satisfaction:
non-pecuniary damage: 1,800 euros (EUR)
Koomen v. the Netherlands (no. 298/15)
The applicants, Tineke Koomen and Jan Koomen, are two Dutch nationals who were born in 1950 and
live in Amsterdam.
The case concerns the death of the applicants’ son, Michael Koomen, who was born on 20 July 1979
and died on 14 May 2011 as a result of a fatal gunshot wound inflicted in the course of a scuffle
between a number of men from an amateur football team, who were celebrating winning their
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Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, Chamber judgments are not final. During the three-month period following a Chamber
judgment’s delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel
of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a
final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Under Article 28 of the Convention,
judgments delivered by a Committee are final.
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.
Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution
football league, and a police officer who was trying to arrest two of them for being intoxicated in
public. The officer was violently attacked by several members of the group and, while trying to defend
himself, he ended up being pushed into his police van on top of the arrested persons. He then drew
his service pistol and fired four shots. The first shot, meant to be a warning shot, fatally injured Michael
Koomen, the captain of the football team, who was standing by the van, trying to calm down the
situation.
Relying on Article 2 (right to life) of the Convention, the applicants complain that the officer’s use of
his firearm was not absolutely necessary and that the authorities failed to conduct an independent
and effective investigation into the incident.
No violation of Article 2
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The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe member
States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
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