HRC “Memorial”* criticizes court decision on convicted Kurchaloi residents’ complaints about torture

The Supreme Court of Russia has recognized as legitimate the refusals to investigate complaints about torture filed by residents of the Kurchaloi District of Chechnya, who were convicted on the charge of terrorism, and that contradicts the position of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), emphasizes the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that in January 2020, the HRC “Memorial”* sent a complaint to the ECtHR in the interests of 14 residents of Chechnya who were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment on the charge of terrorism. Law enforcers kept the accused in a basement and forced them to confess to the crime after torture and threats.

The Supreme Court (SC) of Russia considered legitimate the refusal of the Investigating Department for Chechnya of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) to investigate complaints about torture of the residents of the Kurchaloi District and explained that the sentence against them had already entered into force, the press service for the HRC “Memorial”* reports today.

“The court decided that there were no grounds to investigate the victims’ complaint, as the applicants themselves had already been convicted in the ‘main case’,” the HRC “Memorial”* reports on its website.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Russia contradicts the position of the ECtHR, which in the decision in the case of “Lyapin v. Russia” indicated that according to a report about a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of torture and degrading treatment), public institutions must institute a criminal case and conduct an investigation, and pre-investigation verification alone is not enough, human rights defenders emphasize.

* The organization is included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of NCOs performing functions of a foreign agent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 29, 2022 at 12:20 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.