ECtHR obliges Russia to pay over one million euros to relatives of 18 missing Chechen residents

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has pronounced the decision in the case concerning 18 residents of Chechnya, who disappeared in 2000-2006. The ECtHR has found Russia guilty and obliged the country to pay to the complainants the compensation totalling to 1,080,000 euros.

The ECtHR has made a judgment in the case "Sultygov and others vs. Russia", that is, a joint decision on the twelve complaints. This has been reported by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which lawyers represented the interests of a complainant for one of the complaints.

According to the human rights defenders, the complaints were filed against enforced disappearances of eighteen local residents, who were illegally detained in Chechnya by law enforcers in the period of 2000-2006 and who then disappeared.

"The investigation has failed to produce any result. The authorities did not deny the fact of kidnappings; however, they claimed absence of any evidence for the involvement of law enforcers in the kidnappings," states the press release of the HRC "Memorial".

"The ECtHR has found out that the authorities of the Russian Federation violated 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) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). The ECtHR has obliged Russia to pay the amount of 60,000 euros to relatives of each disappeared person," the authors of the press release have emphasized.