30 March 2021, 21:30
ECtHR obliges Russia to pay compensation to Murtazali Gasanguseinov
Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has pronounced a decision in the case “Gasanguseinov v. Russia”. According to the ECtHR’s decision, Russia must pay compensation in the amount of 120,000 euros to a father of killed Dagestani shepherds Nabi and Gasangusein Gasanguseinov.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 9, the Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan granted a complaint lodged by Murtazali Gasanguseinov against a refusal of the Makhachkala court to institute a criminal case on negligence and official forgery against the former chief of the Shamil ROVD (District Interior Division) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). In the ROVD’s operational report, the police chief declared the Gasanguseinov brothers the terrorists.
The father of the killed shepherds held numerous actions of protest and succeeded in seeking the institution of a criminal case on the killing of his sons – 17-year-old Nabi and 19-year-old Gasangusein – during a special operation in August 2016. The law enforcement bodies declared the killed brothers as militants, but the brothers' parents and their fellow villagers insist that the young men were shepherds and that they were simply grazing sheep in the mountains.
The ECtHR considered the case “Gasanguseinov v. Russia” and concluded that Article 2 (the right to life) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms had been violated. According to the ECtHR’s conclusion, the Russian authorities are responsible for the killing of the Gasanguseinov brothers by law enforcers and for the failure to conduct an effective investigation into their deaths. The ECtHR obliged the Russian authorities to pay within three months the compensation in the amount of 120,000 euros to the father of the killed brothers, reports the Strasbourg Court’s website as translated by the “Caucasian Knot”.
The ECtHR also ordered Russia to provide relatives of the killed brothers with the access to all the materials of the criminal case, reports Oleg Orlov, the chairman of the council of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*.
* by decision of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of the Russian Federation, the organization is included in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 30, 2021 at 03:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
