European Court finds Russia guilty of a Chechen resident's disappearance in 2003

On July 16, the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) passed a decision, obliging Russia to pay 50,500 euros to relatives of Arbi Karimov, a resident of Chechnya, as Russian authorities were found guilty of his disappearance in 2003.

The claim that was considered on July 16 was lodged by four Karimov's relatives, who assert that at night on January 11, 2003, their house in the village of Proletarskoe, Grozny District, was blocked by armoured machines; then a group of militaries in special munitions, who spoke Russian without accent, under threat of sub-machine guns, placed the family members in different rooms; then, Karimov was taken away in an unknown direction. Besides, these militaries withdrew documents and "a number of material values". After that, Karimov's parents applied for his disappearance.

The decision of the Court runs that the investigation on the fact of Karimov's kidnapping was initiated and suspended several times. The persons of those who had kidnapped him are still unknown.

The claimants assert that Karimov was illegally detained and then killed; but local authorities failed to run an efficient investigation. Karimov's disappearance caused psychological pain in the claimants, and their house was searched several times, runs the Court decision.

The "Infox.ru." Agency reports that the relatives applied to the Strasbourg Court relatives in 2005.

The communique of the Court says that Russian authorities failed to present a single document on this case in response to the Court's requests. The Court has decided that Karimov had been kidnapped by Russian militaries in the course of some unknown operation and, most probably, perished.