The ECHR awarded 26 thousand euros to the moderator of an opposition Chechen telegram channel who was forced to sit on a bottle on camera

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded 26 thousand euros in moral compensation to the moderator of the Chechen opposition telegram channel 1ADAT Salman Tepsurkaev in the case of his abduction. This was reported by the Committee Against Torture, which represents the interests of the young man.

The court in Strasbourg concluded that the Russian authorities violated the articles on the prohibition of torture and the right to liberty and security of person (Articles 3 and 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms).

On September 6, 2020, 19-year-old Tepsurkaev was kidnapped in Gelendzhik, where the young man worked in a hotel, and taken to in the car Chechnya of an active MIA officer. The next day, in the chat of the 1ADAT channel, a user with the nickname “Okhotnik” published a video where a naked Tepsurkaev says that he is “punishing himself for behavior inappropriate for a Chechen” and “passing the baton to other administrators of Adat,” after which he tries to sit on a glass bottle .

A day after the young man stopped communicating, his phone turned on, and his relatives were able to get geolocation, human rights activists said. According to the tag, the checkpoint clarified, Tepsurkaev’s phone was on the territory of the Akhmat Kadyrov police patrol regiment.

Chechen investigators issued decisions four times to refuse to initiate a criminal case, citing the lack of evidence of a crime; then the case materials were transferred to the Krasnodar Territory. On November 27, 2020, the investigative department of Gelendzhik opened a case under the article of kidnapping committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (clause “a” of part 2 of article 126 of the Criminal Code). Six months later the case was again transferred to Chechnya.

As stated in the court decision, from the very beginning of the investigation, the security forces had information about the identities of the police officers involved in the abduction. Despite this, “investigators in Chechnya were unable to pursue this obvious line of investigation and did not take any meaningful steps to verify it,” the ECHR clarified.

The document also states that Tepsurkaev’s common-law wife should receive compensation. The whereabouts of the young man are still unknown.

Telegram channel The 1ADAT and its other accounts were declared prohibited for dissemination of information by a court decision in Grozny.