The ECHR awarded 40 thousand euros to a Chechen who was wounded by security forces during a special operation; he was assigned disability group II

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) awarded compensation in the amount of 40,200 euros to Chechen Rizvan Abdulkhanov, who was shot several times by police during a special operation in 2006. The decision was published on the court’s website; the interests of the victim were represented by the Committee Against Torture.

The ECHR found that the Russian authorities violated the second and third articles of the European Convention - the right to life and the prohibition of torture.

As stated in the decision, on the night of December 4-5, 2006, officers of the Grozny police department carried out a special operation near Abdulkhanov’s house, when he went outside, they started shooting at him. The victim lost consciousness and came to his senses in the intensive care unit of the 9th City Clinical Hospital; doctors found six gunshot wounds in him and diagnosed injuries to the large and small intestines, lumbar vertebrae, internal bleeding, hematomas and fourth-degree shock.

Doctors recommended that Abdulkhanov be transferred to a specialized institution for further treatment, but investigators did not give him permission to leave Chechnya. Two months later, the victim was allowed to leave the republic for operations, but Moscow doctors said that due to the delay, the spine began to fester. Abdulkhanov was assigned the second group of disability; he can only walk on crutches and needs care.

According to Russian authorities, on the night of the incident the victim tried to hide from the police and did not respond to their demand to stop, after which he fired at least three times towards the security forces with a Makarov pistol. Security forces wounded Abdulkhanov with return fire, authorities say.

The victim’s wife, Khalimat Abdulkhanova, told the Committee Against Torture that investigators came to their station the next day. According to her, one of the employees took a pistol from the barn, another asked her where her husband was lying after being wounded, then the first one walked a few meters away from the indicated place and threw something on the ground. Then he said that he had found the pistol and cartridges from which Abdulkhanov had fired.

In November 2009, Abdulkhanov was found guilty of participating in an armed formation (Part 2 of Article 208 of the Criminal Code), using violence against security forces (Part 2 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code) and illegal possession of weapons (Part 1 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code). The court sentenced him to five and a half years in a general regime colony, but four months later the sentence was replaced with a suspended sentence.

The victim contacted the lawyers of the Committee Against Torture in January 2009. After the refusal to initiate criminal cases against the security forces, human rights activists appealed to the ECHR; the court communicated the complaint in 2014.