05:20, 19 August 2016

Relatives of men killed in attack on Nalchik appeal against refusal to disclose places of their burial

Relatives of the men killed on October 13, 2005, Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, October 2012. Photo by Anna Arsenieva for the 'Caucasian Knot'.

More than a dozen complaints of relatives of the men accused in the attack on Nalchik in 2005, who demand to disclose the places of burial of the killed men, were filed to the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia, the "Kommersant" reports today.

On October 13, 2005, during the attack on Nalchik, in total 35 law enforcers and servicemen, 14 civilians and 92 attackers were killed. The trial was running since 2008. On December 23, 2014, the Supreme Court (SC) of Kabardino-Balkaria sentenced five defendants in the case of the attack on Nalchik to life imprisonment, three others were released considering the term of imprisonment already served by them, and the rest were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, from 9 to 23 years of imprisonment.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that relatives of the men, killed during a special operation conducted in Nalchik on October 13, 2005, filed claims against the government of Kabardino-Balkaria and demanded to disclose the places of their burial. In July 2016, the Nalchik City Court dismissed the claims.

Advocates of the relatives of the men killed in the attack on Nalchik have appealed for protection of the rights of their clients to the Supreme Court of Russia.

The complainants do not agree with the position of officials of Kabardino-Balkaria, who by default denied them in the consideration of their claims for disclosure of the places of burial of the men killed during the special operation carried out in 2005, the "Kommersant" reports today with reference to advocate Magamed Abubakarov.

In January 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) pronounced the decision to partially grant the applicants' claims in two cases of refusal of the Russian authorities to give out the bodies of the men killed during and after the attack on Nalchik to their family members. Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been explained by Rustam Matsev, a lawyer of the human rights organization "Legal Initiative", representing the interests of the plaintiffs, that the decision pronounced by the ECtHR allowed the relatives of the killed men to repeatedly demand from the authorities to disclose the information on the places of their burial.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.