Complaint about torture of convicted Kurchaloi residents sent to ECtHR

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial” has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the interests of fourteen Chechen residents convicted to long sentences for terrorism. Rights defenders assert that law enforcers had forced the convicts to confess by torture and threats.

The complaint sent by the HRC “Memorial” to the ECtHR states that the above fourteen residents of the Kurchaloi District of Chechnya, after their detention in January 2017, were kept for several weeks in the basement of the building of one of security bodies, where young people were “constantly tortured and threatened with sexual violence.” As a result, the residents of Chechnya were forced to admit to participating in an illegal armed formation (IAF) and storage of ammunition and weapons, after which the court sentenced them to long prison terms and fines in the range from 200 to 250 thousand roubles.

“With respect to the applicants, Articles 3 “Prohibition of torture” and 5 “Right to person’s liberty and security” of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were violated, since they had been kept for several weeks without trial and tortured; and these facts were not properly investigated by Russian authorities. The complaint also refers to a violation of Article 13 “The Right to an Effective Remedy”, due to the fact that national courts evaded a check whether the investigation was really complete and efficient,” says the complaint lodged by the HRC "Memorial" as quoted by the HRC’s website on January 14.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 15, 2020 at 10:42 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.