Introduction

Social Justice Center evaluates the recent restrictions on the property rights of Georgian Muslims living in Adigeni Municipality by the State and believes that the State essentially infringes the rights of the Muslim community, ignores their social needs, and creates the risk of inciting social conflict.

As it is known, in September 2018, by the decree of the Government of Georgia, the non-agricultural and agricultural plots of land in the villages of Kikibo and Dertseli of Adigeni municipality, which was in the legitimate possession of the Muslim community and were used by the members of the community as mowing pastures, were transferred to the Patriarchate of Georgia. Even though the local population had legal documents confirming the legitimate ownership of the plots of land, the state agencies, without any investigation and assessment, disregarded the legal interests of the population and transferred the properties to the Patriarchate. The population appealed the state agencies' actions to the court; the court was effective only in the case of one plaintiff and left other applicants without vital resources (land).

In February 2022, based on the motion of the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia, the Tbilisi City Court seized the land plots owned by several families living in the village Dertseli and the village Mokhe, after which the families' right to dispose of their lands, were restricted. According to the Tbilisi City Court, the property was seized due to the ongoing investigation by the anti-corruption agency of the State Security Service of Georgia, which concerns the official misconduct allegedly committed by the persons employed in the Adigeni Municipality City Hall within the scope of sporadic land registration. The investigation has revealed no crime committed by the Muslim community; moreover, they submitted to the investigative body all the legal documents that confirm the facts of their ancestors' legitimate owner of the land plots and the acquisition of property rights based on the law. However, the property is still seized, and there is a risk of confiscation of the property by the State.

Georgian Muslims living in the villages of Adigeni municipality are mainly cattle herders, and access to hay and pastures is vital for them. Considering the terrain of Adigheni municipality, hay and pasture lands are minimal in the villages; In case of restrictions on access to existing lands, the locals may have to give up cattle breeding and leave their places of residence.

In people's perception, the restriction of property rights to land plots in the villages mentioned above is related to the recent religious persecution in the municipality of Adigheni, which was followed by a gross violation of the rights of the local Muslim community in the village of Tchela (2013), the village of Mokhe (2014) and the village of Adigheni (2016). According to the population, the local diocese enjoys strong influence in the Adigheni municipality, and the municipal government is often unable to make secular decisions based on the rule of law and equality because of these influences. In this reality, the perception among local Muslims that they are seen as second-class citizens is high. Moreover, these asymmetries and hierarchies are visible not only in language and symbols but also in the process of enjoying specific rights and social benefits and are materialized. Clearly, this context has a negative impact on the human rights and social situation of religious minorities as a whole. At the same time, it severely impacts inter-communal relations already burdened by traumatic experiences and memories in villages with weak inter-communal ties and traditions. We see the attempt of the local Christian and Muslim communities to restore good neighborly relations, and we give particular importance and value to this. However, the chain of unjust decisions by the State does not create an opportunity for substantial improvement of reality and social attitudes.

To this end, the Social Justice Center below overviews the trending facts of limiting property rights of the local Muslim community and once again urges the state agencies to take appropriate measures to prevent further instances of restricting the property rights of the Muslim community and create fair, equal and inclusive social and human rights environment in Adigheni municipality.

Overview of the general social context

The village of Dertseli is part of the Dertseli administrative unit of Adigheni municipality. According to the census of 2014, the village's population is 225 people. The absolute majority of the population is Muslim. The village is 17 kilometers away from the Adigheni municipal center. In addition, during the winter, the village is often closed due to heavy snowfall, and transportation to the municipal center becomes impossible.

The main occupation of the local community is agriculture and cattle herding. Therefore, the land has particular importance for the population. Locals state that emptying the village is inevitable without land resources. According to one local, "I don't know why or for whom, but they want to empty our village." According to another source, "We're told that we don't belong here."

There is a strong feeling of alienation and otherness among the local Muslim population, and two main issues stand out when talking about its causes. (1) the existing relations between the local Muslim and Christian population, and (2) the indifferent and unequal attitude of the government towards the local Muslim population.

The Muslims note that, even though time has passed since the conflicts revealed in recent years, inter-communal relations in neighboring villages are still not proper. There is a feeling that the local Christian population perceives Muslims as an enemy and a threat. In 2013-2014, the issue of cutting down the minaret in the village Chela and dismantling the historical mosque in the village Mokhe was particularly traumatic for the local Muslim community, which ended with the arrest and physical abuse of the locals.

In response to the mentioned conflicts, the State has not implemented positive special measures necessary for the restoration of confidence between the communities and the peaceful transformation of the conflict. Due to the strongly negative and non-objective positions of the State in this process (in both villages, the negative role of the police in the process of violating the rights of the Muslim community was clearly visible, which was also confirmed by the latest decision of the European Court of Human Rights - Mikeladze and others against Georgia), the State has to take care on the creation of the climate for restoring trust towards itself. However, according to Muslims, peace is maintained at the expense of the local Muslim population, and ultimately, they do not feel that they live in a fair society.

Seizure of land plots of local peasants in Kikibo-Dertseli

In 2018, it became known that five families in the highland villages of Kikibo and Dertseli (the mentioned villages are located in the Adigheni municipality. The population of Dertseli village is 255, and Kikibo is 53) were restricted from registering property rights on the land under their legitimate ownership, and the land plots were transferred to the Georgian Orthodox Church, according to the decision of the Ministry of Economy and National Agency of State Property.

The families living in this village are the descendants of the Georgian Muslims who settled in the Adigheni villages in the 19th and 20th centuries and represented the religious majority of the village. Their main source of income is traditionally cattle herding, for which the disputed land resources are crucial. In particular, they use the disputed land plot, which is the only area to be used for mowing purposes, to provide hay for cattle during the winter. The mentioned lands were given to the families by the State in the 90s, and besides the fact that the families held documents confirming the legitimate use of the lands, they also paid the respective taxes to the state budget. Nevertheless, in 2018, the National Agency of State Property first registered these lands (up to 8 hectares of land) as state property. It then transferred them to the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Georgia free of charge. Noteworthily, in the process of the land deal, the population was not informed, and no on-site inspection of the land was held. Neither the registration authority nor the National Agency of State Property investigated the land's factual and legal status, whether anyone was interested in it, and whether it was legally owned and occupied arbitrarily. Until now, the disputed lands clearly show signs of cultivation; it is evident that these lands have been used as arable lands for years. It is noteworthy that the local government was also aware of the use of land by the local population but did not take any action to protect their interests in the transfer process.

Due to the actions of the state agencies, the local Muslim community was forced to go to court and litigate the violation of property rights. However, although they submitted to the court the evidence of the legitimate ownership of the land, the First Instance Court in 2019 did not take into account the context of the dispute, the centuries-old tradition of land use, the existing special legislation and formally evaluated the dispute, indicating that the land plots were not registered to the plaintiffs, initially registered them as state property; therefore, the State could alienate these plots at its will. In 2021, the appellate court satisfied the claim of only one claimant, returned the disputed plot of land to him, and left the decision of the first instance court in force in the case of other appellants. The Supreme Court of Georgia did not even admit the case for review, which is why the Muslim community, with the help of the Social Justice Center, continues to litigate the violation of property rights in the European Court of Human Rights.

Despite the fact of the long-term and legitimate use of agricultural land, confiscation of the only and vital resource for the local population - land is an illegal and unjust precedent, which, along with the violation of property rights, has led to the deterioration of the human rights situation of religious minorities, their social vulnerability, exclusion, and aggravated relations between communities. It also again demonstrated State's vicious policy concerning building civil equality and inclusive society.

Restriction of the farmer's property rights in the village of Dertseli

Social Justice Center also protects the legal interests of several Muslim families living in the highland village of Dertseli, Adigeni municipality. The indicated families owned land plots that they used as pastures. The families were given the land plots by the State as early as the 90s. The transfer of ownership is confirmed by more than one legal document. However, on February 28 of this year, the families received a ruling from the Tbilisi City Court, which indicated that a criminal case is pending in the anti-corruption agency of the State Security Service of Georgia under Article 180, Part 2, Subsection "b" and Article 332, paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (fraud that caused significant damage and abuse of official authority).

As part of the case investigation, on February 15, 2022, the prosecutor in charge submitted a motion to the Tbilisi City Court and asked to seize the land plots owned by the families before the execution of the judgment termination of criminal prosecution or investigation. Although the investigative body and the prosecutor's office do not point to the commission of a crime by the families who own the seized property, according to the ruling, the court considered that since the materials submitted by the prosecutor's office created an assumption that a crime was probably committed against the property owned by them (by third parties), it is advisable to seize the property to prevent further transactions of the property.

Although Social Justice Center appealed the decision of the Tbilisi City Court to the Tbilisi Court of Appeal, the Court upheld the decision of the City Court without assessing the validity of the property seizure. It should be taken into account that two days before the consideration of our appeal by the Tbilisi Court of Appeal, the Constitutional Court of Georgia made an important decision and acknowledged the unconstitutionality of the norms in the Criminal Procedure Code, which consider it possible to seize the property (without proper justification) of a person who does not have the status of an accused and is a bona fide buyer of the property. At the same time, the Constitutional Court recognized as unconstitutional the confiscation of property for an indefinite period and obliged the State to create relevant legal mechanisms for periodical revision of the need for confiscation of property. Although we pointed to this decision of the Constitutional Court during the submission of the appeal and the good faith of the farmers living in Dertseli towards the registered property, the Court of Appeal did not consider the instructions of the Constitutional Court and upheld the decision of the first instance.

The decisions of the two court instances create the risk of confiscating seized properties for the Muslim community in favor of the State, even though the families have not committed any crime and have owned the indicated land plots for years. The ownership of land plots is vital for the Muslim community because otherwise, they will be limited in their ability to use the land for livestock. The state's actions again emphasize the practice of ignoring the rights and needs of the Muslim community and contributes to creating new areas of tension.

Legal assessment of identified cases

According to the Social Justice Center assessment, the identified cases of restriction of property rights in the villages inhabited by the Muslim community of Adigeni Municipality represent an arbitrary and unjustified interference by the State in the area protected by property rights. The state agencies ignore the right of the Muslim community to own agricultural land and develop their own agriculture by failing to comply with the requirements of the legislation. The right to property is recognized and inviolable under Article 19 of the Constitution of Georgia, Article 1 of Additional Protocol No. 1 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Constitutional Court of Georgia, while adjudicating the right to property and its legitimate limitations, repeatedly notes that the right to property is the most important fundamental right. Property is an institution that creates the economic basis of the State. Protection of the right to property [..] is vitally necessary for a democratic, legal and social state, on the one hand, to constitutionally and legally guarantee the property as an institution, and on the other hand, to provide the owner, as a subject, with sufficient means of legal protection, to create guarantees for its promotion and provision. The Constitutional Court has repeatedly explained that the limitation of the right should be not only useful but also the least restrictive, proportionate means of achieving the goal. To consider the restriction as proportional and constitutional, first of all, there must be a logical connection between the set legitimate goal and the means used.[1]

It should be emphasized that along with the property right, our constitution recognizes agricultural land as a resource of special importance. In addition, the constitution declares that Georgia is a social state. The State takes care of strengthening the principles of social justice, social equality, and social solidarity in society. The State takes care of human health and social protection, providing a living wage and decent housing, protecting the family's well-being. Annulment of the universal right to private property is not allowed. All people are equal before the law. Under the universally recognized principles and norms of international law and Georgian legislation, citizens of Georgia, regardless of their ethnic, religious, or linguistic affiliation, have the right to preserve and develop their culture without discrimination.

Conclusion

Considering the factual and legal circumstances described above, it is clear that despite the legal obligations taken at the national and international level, the State does not take into account the interests of property rights and access to agricultural lands and ignores the vital social and economic rights of the local community. Even though the State has both the obligation and the appropriate resources to investigate in detail the facts of legitimate ownership and use by other persons in the process of registering ownership rights to land, it does not do this on purpose. Such actions of the state agencies deprive the local population of the opportunity to earn material income, to live on their own, and force them to live in complex social conditions. We are fully aware of the harsh social reality and the feeling of abandonment in these villages in general. Still, it is clear that the continuous violation of the Georgian Muslim community's civil, political, and social rights makes them materially doubly vulnerable and creates a heavy symbolic context of cultural hierarchies.

Clearly, this chain of decisions in the Adigheni municipality is difficult to discuss without the context of conflicts with religious content and inter-communal tensions. It further complicates the social consequences of the violation of rights and requires special care from the State. We again emphasize that the local Christian and Muslim communities are trying to restore good neighborly relations, and this social achievement is to be appreciated. However, the chain of unjust decisions of the State does not create an opportunity for substantial improvement of the situation. The State needs to stop the infringement of the Muslim community's rights, which was noticeable in the illegal actions of the police during the conflicts of recent years and in the disregard of the principles of equality on the part of the self-government, and now it is seen in the tendency to violate the property right. The State should take positive measures to restore trust between communities, support the peaceful transformation of the conflict, and to building trust in the State.

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