ECtHR awards 1.5 million euros to villagers in Chechnya bombed in 1999

On March 29, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on the case "Esmukhambetov et al versus Russia" (Application No. 23445/03) that Russia is responsible for human deaths during the military operation in Chechnya in 1999.

The case deals with the death on September 12, 1999, of residents of the village of Kogi, located in the southeast of the Chechen Republic, not far from the administrative border with Dagestan, in the bombardment and shelling from the air during a counterterrorist operation. The applicants were 27 persons who lived or were in Kogi at the time of events, as reads the statement of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" received by the "Caucasian Knot" editorial office.

As noted in the materials of the case, in the evening on September 12, 1999, two military Su-25 aircrafts appeared in the sky above the village; after an initial flyby of the village they opened an indiscriminate shelling from cannons and bombardment of the houses. Mautali Esmukhambetov saw his two minor sons killed on the spot by a bomb that fell in his yard. His wife, Borambike, mortally wounded by another bomb, died in his arms.

In total, militaries dropped about 70 bombs on Kogi, killed five civilians - relatives of the applicants - and destroyed 30 private houses.

A few days later, militaries destroyed the surviving houses in order not to allow members of illegal armed formations (IAFs), against whom the operation was directed, to use them as shelters. The remaining residents fled to Dagestan and spent the winter in the refugee camp. Some of them never returned to their former residence.

Despite numerous complaints lodged to various state instances on the fact of the murder of five applicants' relatives and destruction of property, a criminal case on the fact of deliberate destruction of households was initiated only on January 21, 2002.

Later a criminal case was opened on the fact of the death of the five applicants' relatives; however, it was stopped on September 23, 2005, due to the absence of corpus delicti in the actions of the militaries, which were found legitimate and aimed at preventing commission of large-scale terror acts.

After receiving the applicants' complaint in July 2003, the ECtHR decided to consider the case in the priority order.

The Court found a violation by the authorities of the right to life, the right to respect for private and family life, the right to respect for property rights and the right to effective remedies, set forth in Articles 2, 3, 8 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Article 1 of the Additional Protocol No. 1 to the Convention.

The Court has rejected the arguments of the Government of the Russian Federation about inadmissibility of the complaint for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies by the applicants, because the Russian legislation and judicial practice assume obtaining compensation for destroyed property only in case of non-legitimate actions of state officials.

The Government argued that the attack on the village of Kogi conducted on September 12, 1999, was justified and absolutely necessary, since the authorities allegedly knew about militants approaching the village and about their preparation of a large-scale terror attack; however, Russian authorities failed to present any evidences in support of this.

The ECtHR found these arguments unconvincing and inadequate, saying that the indiscriminate use of force in the areas, where civilians live, cannot be justified. In support of its position, the Court referred to the norms of the international humanitarian law.

The Court has ruled that the Russian authorities, in violation of the procedural aspect of Article 2 of the ECHR, failed to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident, which caused the death of five applicants' relatives. With regard to destruction of households, the Court found that the intervention of the authorities in the applicants' right to respect for private and family life, as well as for property, was not based on the law. The Court also acknowledged that the applicants had no chance to recover their rights at the national level.

As a result, the ECtHR ruled that the applicants should be paid in total 1,491,000 euros as compensation for the caused moral sufferings and suffered material damage; while the applicants' legal representatives should receive 9350 euros for running the case.

The decision was unanimously passed by the European Court.

The applicants' interests were presented by the lawyers of the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC, London) and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" (Moscow).