ECtHR fines Russia by 148,000 euros for disappearances in Chechnya

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has considered the complaint lodged by relatives of two persons in Chechnya, who disappeared in 2002 and 2004, and ruled to penalize Russia by 148,000 euros.

Ruslan Taimuskhanov from the village of Prigorodnoye, Grozny District of Chechnya, disappeared in December 2002; while Shamkhan Tumaev was taken away, as his relatives assert, by Russian militaries in September 2004 from his village of Valerik, Achkhoi-Martan District of Chechnya. Since then, nobody has ever seen any of them again.

The Russian authorities refused to present most of the investigatory documents on these cases to the Strasbourg Court (ECtHR). According to the Russian government, there is no evidence that Russian militaries had anything to do with the above disappearances of Chechen residents.

However, the Court found evidences of the prosecution sufficient and ruled that "state officials had been involved in the kidnappings of Shamkhan Tumaev and Ruslan Taimuskhanov, and that the missing persons should be presumed dead."

According to the ECtHR's ruling, the Russian authorities shall pay to the claimants 17,000 euros of material compensation, 125,000 euros of moral harm compensation and 6500 euros to cover legal costs, the RIA "Novosti" reports.