Tomorrow marks 10th anniversary of terror act at Dubrovka

Tomorrow, October 23, marks the 10^th anniversary of the terror act, committed in 2002 at the premiere of the musical "Nord-Ost" at the Dubrovka Theatrical Centre in Moscow.

On October 23-26, 2002, during the premiere of the musical "Nord-Ost", a group of armed militants, led by Movsar Baraev, took 916 persons as hostages. After nearly three days, power agents conducted an operation to liberate hostages, in which, according to official figures, 130 persons were killed and more than 700 wounded. 40 militants were killed. The "Caucasian Knot" publishes the information about the circumstances of the commitment of that terror act, the record of events and the results of the investigation into the events, associated with the terror act at Dubrovka.

Family members of the persons, killed or wounded in the terror act at Dubrovka, filed lawsuits, demanding compensation for moral and material damage. This was recalled by lawyer Igor Trunov, who represented the interests of the victims.

"Initially, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of 83 persons to the Russian court; however, but the Court rejected the claim with reference to the fact that the law did not regulate such an opportunity," the lawyer told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

After that, on July 18, 2003, the complaint on behalf of the victims was filed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). "On December 20, 2011, the ECtHR granted our complaint and decided to collect in favour of each of 64 complainants the amounts of 9000-66,000 euros in total, about 1.3 million euros. Moreover, the European Court of Human Rights obliged the Russian Federation to initiate criminal proceedings against officials, because of whose activity or inactivity the hostages perished. Following the consideration of the criminal case, the victims could again appeal to the Russian court to demand compensation for moral and material damage," Igor Trunov has emphasized.

On June 20, 2012, the decision of the ECtHR entered into force. However, the decision of the Strasbourg ECtHR to initiate the criminal case has not been executed.