European Court again condemns Russia on suits of Chechen residents

The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) has again condemned Russia on four claims filed by Chechens and has obliged Russia to pay 282,000 euros out to residents of Chechnya for disappearance of their relatives in 2001-2003.

"Today, the European Court on Human Rights has unanimously condemned Russia for violent disappearances of six persons in different areas of Chechnya in the period from February 2001 to April 2003," representatives of the "Legal Initiative for Russia" report.

The claimants assert that their relatives disappeared after being detained by Russian militaries. Isa Dokaev, Ruslan Asbakhov, and Isa Dubaev disappeared in December 2002, Khanpasha Dzhabrailov - in April 2003, and Saidi Malsagov - in November 2002. According to the claimants, they all were arrested at home by armed persons, identified by the claimants, witnesses and inspectors as Russian militaries. Abdul-Malik Shakhmurzaev disappeared in February 2001, when his car was stopped at a check point. Russian judicial instances, where residents of Chechnya had repeatedly addressed, failed to properly investigate the disappearances of their relatives.

The statement of the European Court runs that the state has failed to provide the Court with the requested materials on the investigation held in Russia, with any acceptable explanations as to the circumstances of the above disappearances and motives of detaining them, as the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.