European Court again condemns Russia for disappearance of Chechen resident

Today in Strasbourg, the decision on the case "Mutsaeva versus Russia" was announced, in which the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) has recognized Russia's violation of a whole range of articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in relation to Khizir Tepsurkaev, detained by power agents in 2001 in Chechnya and missing since.

The Court has ruled that Russia shall pay out 35,000 euros as compensation of moral damage to applicant Zara Mutsaeva, Tepsurkaev's mother.

The statement of the HRC "Memorial" says that the initial applicants in the case of Khizir Tepsurkaev, born in 1980 and kidnapped in Urus-Martan, were his parents. After the death of Khizir's father in 2006, Zara Mutsaeva, his mother, continued standing for justice.

Khizir Tepsurkaev was detained by employees of federal power units in the morning on August 27, 2001, when he was on his way to the place of employment. At passage of a block-post, it turned out that the driver who gave Tepsurkaev a lift and his car were in search. The driver managed to escape, but Khizir was detained, in spite of the fact that he had already passed the passport control. According to eyewitnesses, he was beaten when detained.

After a while, employees of the RUVD (District Interior Department) of Urus-Martan arrived to the place of detention and took Khizir away in an unknown place. Since then, his mother never saw him.