ECtHR finds inquiry into the death of a Chechen woman in Russia inefficient

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg has ruled today on the case "Kosumova vs. Russia" and concluded that the Russian authorities had failed to conduct a proper investigation into the death of Raisa Kosumova, a resident of Chechnya, in 2003. The court awarded the family of the deceased woman with 20,000 euros as compensation of moral harm.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the complaint about the violation of Raisa Kosumova's right to life was sent to the ECtHR on behalf of her mother by the Committee against Torture. According to the applicants, on June 7, 2003, Raisa Kosumova, while on her way home in her car, got under a mortar attack, launched by Russian militaries in the Vedeno District of Chechnya. Despite the opened criminal case, those guilty of Kosumova's death were never established.

After Ruman Kosumova, Raisa's mother, had unsuccessfully tried for several years to receive any information about the investigation into her daughter's death from law enforcement bodies, she turned to the Committee against Torture, says the Committee's website.

In its today's decision, the ECtHR has found that Russian authorities were inefficient in investigating into what happened to Kosumova; however, it proved impossible to establish any involvement of Russian power agents in her death, because the ECtHR failed to receive enough material about the incident.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.