ECtHR obliges Russia to pay compensation to relatives of Abdul-Yazit Askhabov kidnapped in Chechnya

Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled on the case of the kidnapping in 2009 of Abdul-Yazit Askhabov, a resident of Chechnya. The ECtHR has stated that Russian authorities failed to conduct an effective investigation into the incident and obliged them to pay 60,000 euros to victim's relatives.

According to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", at night on August 5, 2009, Abdul-Yazit Askhabov was kidnapped from his own house by three unidentified armed men in masks. His brother Yusup Askhabov was killed earlier in Shali during a special operation carried out there on May 28, 2009.

"At night on August 17, 2009, the house of the Askhabov family was again stormed by armed men in camouflage, this time without masks. One of them, a staff member of Regiment No. 2 of patrol-and-post service named after Akhmad Kadyrov of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Chechen Republic, was identified by a woman from the Askhabov family," the HRC "Memorial" reports.

The criminal case was initiated on the case of kidnapping. Later, the proceedings under the criminal case had been repeatedly suspended and resumed. In October 2009, Tamara Askhabova, the mother of the kidnapped man, filed a complaint to the ECtHR, since she believed that the investigation into the case at the national level had not been effective. Her interests at the ECtHR were presented by lawyers of the HRC "Memorial" and the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC).

Abdul-Yazit Askhabov has never been found; and his kidnappers were not identified. The investigator on the case contacted the above A. Kadyrov Regiment No. 2 aiming to carry out identification of possible kidnappers; however, his requests were ignored, the Interregional Public Organization "Committee against Torture" reports.

In the case "Askhabov vs. Russia", the ECtHR has found out violations of Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment), Article 5 (right to liberty and security) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) in combination with Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

"This is the first ruling of the ECtHR with regard to the 'Kadyrov's Chechnya', when the ECtHR has ruled on the responsibility of law enforcement bodies for kidnapping and death of a human," the press release of the HRC "Memorial" reports.