15 May 2009, 23:30
Russia loses Chechen cases in European Court again
At the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg, the Russian Federation has lost two cases to residents of Chechnya, who accused Russia's authorities of disappearance and murder of their relatives.
Decisions of the Court on the murder case of Kazbek Taisumov and disappearance case of Aslanbek Khamidov oblige Russia to pay compensations for material and moral damage.
Relatives of Aslanbek Khamidov, who live in the Chechen Republic, told the Court that they last saw him in October 2000 when armed people in camouflage took him out of the house for checking documents.
Three residents of Chechnya - the suffered party in the second case - said that their relative Kazbek Taisumov, his wife and their senior daughter were murdered on September 7, 2002, presumably, in the course of artillery shelling.
The Court has studied the circumstances of the cases and ruled that Russia had broken several articles of the European Convention on Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as the "Kommersant" writes.
According to the preliminary decision, adopted after consideration of the above two claims on disappearance and murder in Chechnya in 2000 and 2002, Russia should pay 104,000 euros to the applicants, as reported by the "Echo Moskvy" Radio.
