The ECHR awarded compensation of more than 1.6 million euros to the families of those missing in Chechnya and Ingushetia

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded compensation to the families of more than 20 people who disappeared in Chechnya and Ingushetia from 2000 to 2005, the Justice Initiative project told Mediazona. have been published on the ECHR website Two decisions .

The total amount of compensation in 20 cases awarded to relatives of the missing amounted to more than 1.6 million euros. As human rights activists note, the applicants are closely related to the missing, all disappearances occurred in territory controlled by the Russian military during the counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya, and investigations in the republics were inconclusive.

The Court found that Article 2 (right to life and the duty to conduct an effective investigation), Article 3 (prohibition of torture), Article 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on human rights.

“The state is responsible not only for fulfilling financial obligations to applicants for payment of compensation, but also for effectively investigating abductions, but in practice, the implementation of this kind of ECHR Rulings is limited only to the payment of monetary compensation,” said Rustam Matsev, lawyer of the Legal Initiative.

Thus, in one of the cases, Valentina Kulishova reported the abduction of her son Dmitry from an apartment in Grozny in March 2005. Armed people in camouflage uniforms detained him and took him to the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Nothing has been known about him for 13 years; I contacted the police in both Moscow and Chechnya. To no avail, he was nowhere to be found,” Kulišova said.

Akhdan Akhmetkhanov, according to relatives, was detained by armed men in uniform in June 2002 in the Chechen village of Gekhi. According to eyewitnesses, Akhmetkhanov was taken towards the city of Urus-Martan, and his relatives never heard anything more about him.

Magomed Umarov was detained by the military in Shali in May 2005. According to human rights activists, the investigation into the kidnapping of Umarov has not yet been completed.

Corrected at 20:49. Initially, the news erroneously stated that the families of nine missing people received compensation, but in reality the applicants were the families of more than 20 abducted Russians. In this regard, the title has been adjusted.