"Mothers of Beslan" criticize Russia's position at ECtHR

On September 1, North Ossetia launched mourning events to mark the 13^th anniversary of the terror act at School No. 1 in Beslan. On the same day, members of the NGO "Mothers of Beslan" held a press conference at which they expressed their attitude to the position of the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which challenged the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of the terror act in the Beslan School, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 13, the ECtHR recognized the violation of the rights of relatives of the people killed and injured during the seizure of the Beslan school in 2004. In total, 409 applicants were awarded compensations amounting to 2.955 million euros and additional 88,000 euros to reimburse the legal costs. The Russian Commissioner at the ECtHR appealed against this decision and blamed the ECtHR for using double standards.

The position of the Russian authorities is not new, and it expresses their attitude to the assessment of the events that took place in Beslan on September 1-3, 2004, believes Taimuraz Chedjemov, a member of the "Mothers of Beslan" Committee.

"No, there is nothing new in the fact that the authorities challenge ECtHR's decision. From the very beginning, our law enforcement agencies blamed only terrorists and no one else in the Beslan terror act. And the investigation was reduced to investigating the one version only: the terrorists were guilty," Taimuraz Chedjemov said at the press conference.

Participants of the press conference have noted that they filed an appeal to the Strasbourg Court with objections against the appeal from the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

According to the victims' letter sent to the ECtHR, the Russian authorities had enough time to show evidence of the effectiveness of the special operation to save the hostages. However, in the course of the communication at the court hearings, the authorities declared only general phrases about the terrorist danger around the world without presenting serious arguments to justify themselves.

The authors of the victims' letter to the ECtHR believe that they submitted enough facts to uphold the Strasbourg Court's ruling and to dismiss the Russian authorities' request to consider the case of "Tagaev and Others v. Russia" by the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.