11 June 2009, Thursday

The European Court of Human Rights today unanimously condemned Russia for human rights violations in two cases from Chechnya, Russian Justice Initiative said today.

Khasuyeva v. Russia (28159/03) concerns the disappearance of Abu Khasuyev. On 30 August 2001 Abu was taken away in broad daylight from his home in Urus-Martan by a group of Russian military servicemen. He has not been seen since.

The applicants in Khalitova and Others v. Russia (33264/04) are relatives of Amir Magomedov, Ali Uspayev, Aslan Dokayev and Rustam Achkhanov. Amir and Ali were detained by Russian military servicemen at their home in the village of Raduzhnoe in the early hours of 18 July 2001. Neighbors testified how Amir and Ali were loaded on one of two APCs used by the servicemen. Outside the village the vehicles were joined by two more APCs. Around that time Aslan and Rustam were driving towards Raduzhnoe when a military convoy consisting of four APCs without warning opened fire on their car. Aslan and Rustam were wounded. The servicemen threw Aslan and Rustam in one of the APCs and then blew up the car. There has been no news of the four men since.

In today's judgments the ECtHR unanimously held that:

  • The right to life has been violated in respect of all five men who must be presumed dead (violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights);

  • The Russian authorities had failed to conduct effective investigations into the violations of the right to life (violation of Article 2);

  • The applicants' relatives had been illegally detained (violation of Article 5);

  • The manner in which the complaints of the applicants were dealt with by Russian authorities constituted inhuman treatment (violation of Article 3);

  • The applicants did not have access to an effective remedy before Russian authorities for the violations (violation of Article 13);

The Court awarded the applicants in the two cases a total of 153,000 euro for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages.

The applicant in Khasuyeva was assisted in bringing her application to the Court by Russian Justice Initiative. The applicants in Khalitova and Others were represented before the Court by International Protection Centre

For more information:

In Moscow, Russia: Roemer Lemaître, +7 906 7723632



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