The ECHR awarded 170 thousand euros to four Chechens who were forced under torture to admit guilt in terrorism cases

The European Court awarded 170 thousand euros in compensation to four Chechens who were forced under torture in Grozny in 2002-2006 to admit guilt in terrorism and other crimes. The decision was published on the court's website.

Eldar Orazbaev, Muslim Zulkarnaev and Timur Satabaev, whom she represented, were each awarded 50 thousand euros, and Umar Chapanov - 20 thousand euros. The court found that in all cases the prohibition of torture and the right to effective legal protection (Articles 3 and 13 of the European Convention) had been violated.

Satabaev indicated in his complaint that in 2002 he was detained in the evening during a special operation in Grozny, and a pistol was found on him. In the temporary detention center, the police handcuffed him to a radiator and beat him with batons, demanding a confession. Two days later he was taken to ORB-2, where they put on a gas mask, beat him with water bottles, beat him with a stun gun, and burned his forehead and back with cigarettes. A week later, he signed the documents without reading them.

Orazbayev was detained in 2004 in the Stavropol region on a weapons possession case, but was soon taken to Chechnya on a new case of belonging to illegal armed groups. He said that on the way they put a bag over his head, and in ORB-2 they also chained him to a radiator and beat him with batons and a shocker. A year later, he refused the testimony he had given then, but he was beaten again in the Shelkovsky District Department of Internal Affairs of Chechnya.

Chapanov was detained in the evening in September 2005 at his home in the city of Shali by armed security forces. In ORB-2, according to him, demanding to admit guilt in robbery, the police beat him with plastic bottles of water, stun guns, put on a gas mask and choked him, and also put out cigarettes on his back. Chapanov said that they also brought his pregnant wife and threatened to rape her if he refused to confess.

In the spring of 2006, Muslim Zulkarnaev was detained at his house in the Volgograd region by men who introduced themselves as GRU soldiers, who then chained him to a radiator and beat him in the building of the Volgograd Organized Crime Control Department. When he refused to testify a month later, he was taken to Chechnya, where, during interrogations, ORB-2 and the Nozhai-Yurtovsky temporary detention center, according to him, he was also beaten.

In all cases, law enforcement agencies refused to investigate torture. When Orzabaev’s mother tried to get an investigation through the court, the judge pointed out that ORB-2’s medical records and journals were destroyed due to the expiration of their storage period. Several dozen residents of Grozny subsequently spoke about torture in ORB-2. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, demanded the withdrawal of ORB-2, which was not part of the republican Ministry of Internal Affairs, from the republic.