ECtHR starts communication with Russian authorities on case of "Chernobyl" liquidator

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has sent a request to Russian authorities concerning the case of a participant of the liquidation of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident from the KBR.

The request has to do with an application filed to the ECtHR on November 20, 2012, by Vladimir Voronkov, a resident of Nalchik, born in 1942, a Category II invalid and a Chernobyl accident liquidator, the lawyer Ilyas Timishev, who is representing the interests of Chernobyl liquidators, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The Voronkov's application says that on April 12, 2011, the Nalchik City Court upheld his claim, lodged among lawsuits of other 16 applicants, about compensation of the moral harm in the amount of 1.5 million roubles. However, the money was never paid to him and 10 other applicants, because the court failed to issue a writ of execution.

On October 10, 2012, the Judicial Collegium on Civil Cases of the KBR's SC rejected the applicant's claim, stating that the collection of money in his favour as compensation of moral harm was not envisaged by the law in force in 1986, when the harm was inflicted to the applicant's health.

The ECtHR has put questions to the parties in the case whether the cancellation of the legitimate enforced decisions made in favour of the applicants was an interference with the right to respect the property, as an obligation, based on a court decision. And, if so, whether such interference was in line with the requirements of the article of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (protection of property).