10:54, 29 May 2008

European Court awards 70,000 euros to relatives of Chechnya residents kidnapped in 2003

Today, the European Court for Human Rights has made public its decisions on five cases related to residents of Chechnya. One of them, the case named "Betaev and Betaeva versus Russia" was presented by the lawyers of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" together with the European Human Rights Defence Centre (London).

A statement of the HRC "Memorial" that has arrived to the "Caucasian Knot" runs that the European Court, having considered the complaint filed by Mr Betaev and Ms Betaeva versus Russia (No. 37315/03), has satisfied all the applicants' claims and ruled that a moral compensation in the sum of 70,000 euros should be paid to them by the Russian government. Thus, the Russian militaries have been found guilty of kidnapping and murdering two Chechen brothers.

The applicants in this case - Isa Betaev and Rosa Betaeva, who live in Goity village of the Chechen Republic, lost their sons Lecha and Ibragim Betaevs (born in 1981 and 1983), who had been kidnapped in Chechnya in 2003 by servicemen of the federal armed forces in the course of a "counterterrorist operation".