ECtHR obliged Russia to pay 550 thousand euros on the case of disappearance of eight residents of Chechnya

On December, 18, European Court of Human Rights considered the case “Aslakhanov and others vs. Russian Federation” and obliged Russia to pay 550 thousand euros to the families of eight residents of Chechnya who disappeared in the first half of the 2000-s. The court took side with the claimants who stated that their relatives were kidnapped by representatives of Russian power ministries.

16 members of five families from Chechnya were claimants on the case. According to them, within the period from March of 2002 till July of 2004 one of them and eight of their relatives were detained by armed and masked people who behaved like the military during a special operation.

After several days of torture the detained claimant was released and returned home. None of the rest detainees was even seen later, all the eight men are officially considered missing.

The criminal cases initiated were closed unfinished. All the attempts to appeal against dismissal of the action were useless and the claimants appealed to ECtHR, Russian Agency of Legal and Juridical Information reports.

The European Court resolved that the Russian authorities failed to explain these people’s disappearance and emphasized systematic character of such practice demanding to stop it, “BBC “Russian Service” reports.