The Social Justice Center (SJC), a local human rights watchdog, has said the Georgian authorities appear to have violated its moratorium on extraditions to Russia, calling on them to “immediately suspend” the practice until conditions in Russia “change substantially” and there is an international consensus on the issue.
The SJC’s October 5 statement follows the death of Dmitry Pushkaryov following his extradition from Georgia to Russia, with Russian authorities reporting that the prisoner was killed after he attacked escorts on a train, killing one and wounding three. The case has raised concerns in Georgia’s over the resumption of extraditions to Russia, following a moratorium introduced after Russia’s expulsion from the Council of Europe in 2022.
Separately, another Russian citizen, Mikhail Timofeyev, a former aide and political associate of imprisoned former Governor of Khabarovsk Sergei Furgal, was recently released from extradition detention in Georgia on bail. According to the lawyers, the release followed the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s interim measure issued earlier in September urging Georgia not to extradite or deport him pending its consideration of his case.
The watchdog called on the government authorities, the Justice Ministry, and the Prosecutor’s General Office of Georgia “to immediately suspend the extradition of persons to the Russian Federation until the reality in the Russian Federation changes substantially and a consensus on this exists in the international community.”
The SJC also called on the Prosecutor General’s Office to publish statistical information on extradition requests received from Russia after March 16, 2022, including the decisions taken and extraditions carried out.
“The mere fact that Dmitry Pushkaryov was killed does not directly establish that Georgia violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights by extraditing him,” the SJC said. “However, his death raises even more serious questions regarding how thoroughly the Georgian authorities assessed the risks he faced in Russia, what guarantees they obtained from Russia, whether an independent mechanism existed to monitor compliance with those guarantees, and whether the Georgian side subsequently conducted any monitoring of the individual’s situation.”
The organization recalled that, during the European Court of Human Rights’ examination of Sumbaev v. Georgia, the Georgian authorities had undertaken not to extradite prisoners to Russia until the Court established its approach to the issue.
“The Georgian side also submitted statistics by which it argued that, after March 2022, once the Russian Federation was expelled from the Council of Europe, not a single prisoner had been handed over from Georgia,” the SJC said.
It added that between 2017 and 2022, Russia submitted 33 extradition requests to Georgia, of which 29 were granted, meaning that Georgia approved “practically 90%” of Russia’s requests.
The SJC also cited Russian authorities as reporting several other recent extraditions from Georgia to Russia, naming Nikita Podstavin, who was reportedly handed over in February this year, Maxim Cherbakov in July, and Rasul Kaitmazov.
“It appears that the Georgian authorities violated the moratorium declared in this case, without the Prosecutor General’s Office making any statement about it, and that the practice of handing over prisoners has been underway since at least February 2026,” the watchdog warned.
The SJC cited Georgia’s international obligations, including Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which says that it is prohibited to extradite individuals to countries where they face a real risk of torture or other prohibited treatment. It also cited Georgian laws prohibiting “extradition where there are substantial grounds to believe that the person would face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the requesting state.”
“Continuing the existing practice of extradition to the Russian Federation, especially without proper public justification, a particularly strict individual risk assessment and guarantees of genuinely functioning independent monitoring, creates a serious risk of Georgia violating its obligations under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture,” the organization argued.
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