On November 9th, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the Russian Federation was responsible for the disappearance and presumed death of two Chechens, a father and son, and the killing of a Chechen woman, whose body was found later in a mass grave. The Strasbourg court obliged the Russian Federation to pay an indemnity to relatives of victims. (13-NOV-06)
Text: HRH/Moscow, by Yanina Savenko. Sources: demos-center.ru, newsru.com, memo.ru
The first case concerns a disappearance of father and his son Imakayev in 2002 and in 2000. The Strasbourg court held that Russian soldiers seized Said-Khuseyn Imakayev, aged 23, at a roadblock in the republic of the Chechen Republic in 2000. His father, Said-Magomed Imakayev, who had repeatedly demanded an explanation for his son´s arrest, disappeared four months after he had appealed to the court. Since that time neither man has been seen. The Strasbourg Court obliged the Russian Federation to pay 90 thousand euro to Marzet Imakayeva, mother and wife of victims. The European Court ruling comes into force in three months if parties don’t appeal the decision.
Authorities are unwilling to investigate the case
Imakayeva left for the United States as a refugee in March 2004 with her son, daughter and grandson. “To save my remaining children, I had to leave”, said Marzet Imakaeva. “I was warned that something could happen with us. Sometimes I saw soldiers following me, I left home and then returned by different ways”. According to Marzet Imakaeva, her husband was arrested in her presence. They gave her a note promising that he would be back in two hours. She explained everything to investigator of the Military Office of Public Prosecutor Savitskiy and gave him the note. She even knew that the men, who had arrested her husband, were from a military unit in Starye Agaty. She persumed that they were soldiers of the Main Intelligence Department of the Russian Federation Armed Forces General Staff. The investigator met them and they confessed to a Said-Magomed Imakayev detention. Meanwhile, the Russian Federation told the European Court that Said-Magomed had not been arrested. “When the investigator almost proved who had taken my husband away he was dismissed and appointed the public prosecutor of a military unit and the case was handed over to the head of the Moscow Military Public Prosecutor Office”. As a result, nowadays criminal cases are postponed. On the whole, Marzet Imakayeva said she was satisfied with the ruling but wanted to know what had happened to her husband and son so that she can bury them if they are dead.
Too many violations
The Russian Federation was found guilty of the following: of violation of right to 
life and of inefficient investigation of presumed death of Said-Khuseyn and Said-Magomed Imakayev (Article 2 of the European Convention for Human Rights); of inhuman treatment of the plaintiff (Article 3 of the Convention); of violation of right to freedom and to security of disappeared persons (Article 5 of the Convention); of violation of right to respect private and family life of the Imakayevs (Article 8); of violation of right to effective means of legal protection (Article 11). Despite the European Court’s inquiry the Russian Federation didn’t turn over requested documents related to the case. Officials said the documents contained state secrets. So, the Russian Federation violated the 38th Article of the Convention, – said Arsen Sakalov, Director of Ingushetia civil organization “Justice Initiative”, who is defense lawyer of Marzet Imakayeva.
Mass grave has been found in the Chechen Republic
In the second case, the court held the Russian Federation responsible for the murder of Nura Luluyeva, whose body was found with 50 others in February 2001 in the largest mass grave ever discovered in the Chechen Republic. The grave was discouvered less than a mile from a Russian military unit. Many of the victims, dressed in civilian clothes, had their hands and feet bound. Experts proved that the woman died of head injuries and that the blows were inflicted by a blunt object. The court found that Luluyeva, aged 40, was arrested in June 2000 by a group of Russian soldiers. The Strasbuorg Court ruled that Russian authorities must pay 70 thousand euro to relatives of Nura Luluyeva as the indemnity.
Number of suits from Russian citizens has been increasing
Moreover, in October the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Russian Federation was responsible for the deaths of five members of the Estamirovs – Chechen family in 2000, there were a pregnant woman and a one-year-old baby among them. In July the Strasbourg Court ruled that Russian authorities had been responsible for violation of right to life of young Chechen Khadzhimurat Yandiev. Since the beginning of the year Russian government was obliged to pay citizens more than 12 million rubles as a result of appeales to the European Court, said Russian Federation representative in the European Court Pavel Laptev. In 2005 Russian citizens filed 10590 suits to the European Court, that constitutes the fifth of all suits. Meanwhile, the European Court has to enlarge its staff by 10%, because there are too many suits from the Russian Federation.
Significance of the Chechen cases victory
Russian human rights activists believe that bringing the cases from the Chechen Republic before the European Court of Human Rights gave the opportunity to draw international public attention to the wide spread violations of human rights in this region and to indifference of Russian authorities to these violations. “The Russian government´s commitment to human rights and the European Convention will now be apparent by the way they respond to these judgments,” said representative of the Russian “Justice Initiative”.
