Russia lost another action in the European Court of Human Rights on disappearances of people in Chechnya

Today the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on the case "Hutsaev and others against the Russian Federation", found Russia guilty of illegal detention and subsequent disappearance of three inhabitants of Chechnya.

The complainants in the case were two families from the village of Gekhi, Urus-Martan district of the Chechen Republic. The case involved the illegal detention and subsequent disappearance of the applicants' close relatives - Beslan Khutsaev, Movsar Hutsaev and Adam Didaev.

According to the plaintiffs, on the night of 16 December 2001, a group of armed men in masks and camouflage uniforms broke into Isa Khutsaev's house.  They ordered Isa and his son Movsar to go outside and lie face down on the ground. There, in the courtyard, there was another son of Isa, Beslan, was already weltering in blood. 

The armed men abducted Beslan and Movsar, Isa's wife Birlant Khutsaeva saw their sons being put in military vehicles with Russia's plate numbers and taken to an undisclosed location. The same night Adam Didaev was detained and disappeared under similar circumstances.

The case has not been investigated yet, the perpetrators are not found and not punished, HRC "Memorial" informs.