Azernews.Az

BRUSSEL – Breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights last year cost Turkey just under 25 million euros (37 million dollars), officials from Europe's top human rights watchdog said on Thursday, DPA reported.

Respect of the convention is policed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, which takes up individual complaints and orders compensation when breaches are found.

In 2010, Turkey paid out 24,542,000 euros to comply with the ECHR's judgements - the highest amount among members of the Council of Europe, the organization of which the convention and the ECHR are a part.

The compensation paid out by Romania and Russia were joint second-highest at 7.4 million euros, followed by Italy, with 6 million euros, and 5 million from Portugal.

Speaking at a news briefing in Brussels, Frederik Sundberg, a Council of Europe official who monitors compliance with ECHR rulings, said Turkey's cases were most often related to ill-treatment of suspected Kurdish separatists.

Russia was most often in the dock for police brutality in the North Caucasus, another separatist area; Italy for the slowness of its justice system; Romania for disputes related to Communist-era expropriations, Sundberg said.

The figures were disclosed as most EU governments were struggling with austerity measures to curb burgeoning deficits. Sundberg said countries usually pay ECHR fines, albeit not on time.

'It is extremely rare that there is a total refusal of payment,' he said.

A report he presented showed that compensation last year was paid within the statutory three-month deadline only in 28 per cent of cases, down from 37 per cent in 2009.

In another 13 per cent of cases, money was paid late, while the Council of Europe was still waiting for member states to report on what they had done with the remaining 60 per cent of cases.