30 May 2008, 19:54
Akbulatov: Russia fails to completely fulfil European Court's decisions on Chechnya
Head of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Grozny Shakhman Akbulatov has stated, while making his comments on the May 29 decision of the European Court for Human Rights obliging Russia to pay out money compensation to five residents of Chechnya, that Russia fails to completely fulfil the decisions of the European Court.
"After the decision of the European Court, apart from paying monetary compensation to the victim, the Russian leadership shall also ensure an efficient investigation of the case, find and punish those guilty. While there are no claims to the government of Russia as to payment of compensations, since the money sums awarded by the ECtHR are duly paid out, there are claims as to the second part of its decisions, since cases are actually not investigated, the guilty persons are not established and remain unpunished," Mr Akbulatov has explained. "Currently, we are drafting guidelines for the European Court on solving this part of the matter."
On May 29, the Court considered five cases and ruled to pay compensations of material and moral damage to the applicants in the sum of 429,000 euros. The interests of the applicants in one of these cases were defended by the lawyers of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", and in the remaining four - by the Foundation "Legal Initiative for Russia". According to Shakhman Akbulatov, dozens of similar cases are at the stage of consideration by the European Court.
Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent
