13:32, 27 November 2014

ECtHR obliges Russia to pay Said Amirov 15,000 euros for his detention

Said Amirov in the court room. Rostov-on-Don, May 2014. Photo by Oleg Pchelov for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has announced its decision on the complaint filed by Said Amirov, the former Mayor of Makhachkala, about the fact that he was kept in custody during the investigation despite the medical contraindications. The ECtHR has obliged Russia to pay Said Amirov the compensation for moral damages in the amount of 15,000 euros and to cover legal costs.

On July 9, the North-Caucasian District Military Court sentenced Said Amirov to 10, and his nephew Yusup Djaparov – to 8.5 years in a high security colony on charges of preparing a terror act. The defendants refused to plead guilty. According to investigators, Amirov was also involved in the murder of the investigator Arsen Gadjibekov, the head of one of the investigating divisions of Makhachkala, committed on December 14, 2011, in the city of Kaspiysk. On September 18 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the verdict to Said Amirov, passed by the North-Caucasian Military District Court.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 12, 2013, while Said Amirov was kept in custody in the criminal case on plotting of a terror act, his defence filed a complaint to the ECtHR and claimed the pre-trial restriction measure against the defendant had been announced unlawfully. In their complaint, the defence claimed that Said Amir was put in the SIZO (pre-trial prison) without good excuse and that he received no medical care at the SIZO.

The ECtHR has revealed a violation of Article 3 "Prohibition of Torture" of the Convention on Human Rights and obliged Russia to pay Said Amirov within three months the amount of 15,000 euros for moral damage and 850 euros for covering costs incurred for filing the complaint to the Strasbourg Court. The above decision has been published today on the ECtHR's website.

According to the ECtHR's decision, other complainant's claims were dismissed. Thus, the ECtHR did not recognize a violation of the Said Amirov's rights under Article 5 of the Convention on Human Rights (right to liberty and security).

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