Following a ruling by European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Amnesty International called on the Georgian authorities to at last investigate "thoroughly and impartially" murder of Sandro Girgvliani.
 
"The (ECHR) ruling is a timely reminder to the Georgian authorities of their obligation to end the impunity of public officials. Amnesty International has repeatedly raised concerns over Georgia’s failure to bring law enforcement officials to justice," said John Dalhuisen, deputy director of Europe and Central Asia programme at Amnesty International.

“The Georgian authorities must carry out prompt, thorough and effective investigations into allegations of human rights violations and bring those responsible to justice in a court of law, whatever their position of power," he said.

Amnesty International called on the Georgian authorities to implement the judgment of the ECHR "without delay".
 
The Strasbourg-based human rights court's ruling on April 26 cleared the state of responsibility for the killing of Sandro Girgvliani, saying that at the time of committing the crime, four Interior Ministry officers were acting in thier personal capacity and not in thier official one.

But the court slammed the Georgian government for the way it handled the investigation of this murder case, saying that it was "struck by how the different branches of state… acted in concert in preventing justice from being done in this gruesome homicide case.”

The Court also said that the government failed to present some of the key evidence, thus violating article 38 of the European human rights convention.

The Court ordered the government to pay EUR 50,000 to the Girgvliani family for non-pecuniary damage. The Georgian officials said the authorities would pay the sum.

The Girgvliani family lawyers, as well as opposition politicians said that although ECHR did not directly ordered the state to re-investigate the murder case, the judgment provided more than enough grounds for the case to be reopened for further probe. But the Georgian officials indicated that there would be no re-investigation of the case.