The ECHR awarded compensation to beaten participants in the protest in memory of Anna Politkovskaya

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has published a decision in the case of beaten participants in a rally in memory of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

In 2006, a picket dedicated to Anna Politkovskaya was held in Nazran. The event was agreed with the authorities, but the day before the scheduled date, the organizer received a handwritten refusal. The participants were met by the police at the place of the rally. After refusing to stop the rally due to illegal disagreement, the police rudely dispersed the crowd. In particular, the police beat Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya and Shamsuddin Tangiev and detained Zina Mukusheva, Zoya Muradova, Fatima Yandiyeva and Albert Khantygov. All the victims at that time were employees of the offices of the Memorial Human Rights Center in the North Caucasus. Failing to get a fair hearing in Russia, in 2008 they filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.

The ECHR ruled that the Russian authorities violated the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to liberty and security of person (Art. 5) and the right to freedom of assembly (Art. 11). The applicants were awarded compensation: five thousand euros each to Zina Mukusheva, Zoya Muradova, Fatima Yandiyeva and Albert Khantygov and four thousand euros each to Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya and Shamsuddin Tangiev.

• “Zina Mukusheva, Zoya Muradova and Fatima Yandiyeva were detained by plainclothes officers when they had already left the picket, 200 meters from the place where it was being held. They were pushed into a car and brought to one of the Nazran police departments. On the way, the women asked the security forces to introduce themselves, and they replied: “Consider that you have been kidnapped.” At about the same time, Albert Khantygov was also detained when he was leaving the place of the rally,” the Human Rights Center “Memorial” writes about the events of 2006.