European Court on Human Rights condemns Russia on three more cases from Chechnya

Today, the European Court on Human Rights has unanimously convicted Russia for violent disappearances of 13 persons in different districts of Chechnya in the period from January 2001 to January 2003.

The applicants, whose suits were satisfied today, were residents of the Chechen settlements Urus-Martan and Tsotsi-Yurt. Their relatives disappeared after being detained and taken away by armed people in masks in the period of 2001-2003. Nothing was known about them since.

The total sum of payments awarded under these claims by the Strasbourg Court makes over 293,000 euros, as the "Interfax" reports. According to the "Legal Initiative", the total awarded compensations made the sum of 522,000 euros.

The case Dzhambekova et al. versus Russia concerns the disappearances of Rizvan Tatariev, Sharpudi Visaitov, Magomed Soltymuradov and Imran Dzhambekov. The investigation has concluded that the missing persons were possibly initially detained by Russian militaries. However, the inspectors failed to establish the whereabouts of them and the persons of the militaries who executed the detentions.

In December 2002, two women-applicants were detained during a peaceful demonstration held on disappearances of their close relatives. During December 11-15, 2002, they were kept in awful conditions in the Gudermes ROVD.

The applicants in the case Elsiev et al. versus Russia are the relatives of eight young men who disappeared on September 2-7, 2002, in the village of Tsotsi-Yurt in the course of a large-scale special operation of Russian federal forces. The missing young men were Salakh Elsiev, Iskhadzi Demelkhanov, Ahmed Demilkhanov, Adam Boltiev, Lom-Ali Abubakarov, Ramzan Mandiev, Aslambek Agmerzaev and Dzhabrail Debishev. The authorities knew about the special operation in Tsotsi-Yurt, but denied the fact of detention of applicants' relatives. The villagers have confirmed that the young men were detained by militaries and delivered to the filtration centre.

The case Khadaeva et al. versus Russia is connected with disappearance of Ali Khadaev after his arrest by Russian militaries in his own house in Urus-Martan on January 5, 2003. Since then, no news of him ever came.