European Court finds Russia guilty of two teenagers' deaths in Chechnya in 2000

The European Court for Human Rights has found Russia guilty of "supposed deaths" of two Chechen teenagers, whom nobody ever saw again after their detention by OMON (Special Militia) fighters in June 2000. According to the verdict, Russia shall pay out 74,000 euros of compensation to their mothers.

According to the materials of the case "Lyanova and Alieva versus Russia", in the evening on June 28, 2000, in Grozny, the sons of the applicants - Murad Lyanov, 16, and Islam Dombaev, 15, together with their friend of 17, made their way to the house of another friend of theirs. However, their parents never saw them again. The three teenagers were detained during the joint operation of the Pskov OMON and OBRON-8 and brought first to the OBRON-8 base, and then to the city of Khankala.

Nothing is known about them since. Some days after the detention, an inspector from the district militia unit returned Islam's guitar to his mother saying that he had received it from an employee of OBRON-8. However, the investigation of the kidnapping case of the three teenagers gave no results; the guilty persons were never established.

The press-service of the ECtHR reports that the Strasbourg Court has concluded that Russian authorities failed "to give any satisfactory explanation of what had happened" on that evening, and ruled that the teenagers perished "after their illegal arrest" by the workers of state services.

At the trial, the applicant Asiyat Lyanova, mother of Murad Lyanova, was represented by the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" and the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC). Rashan Alieva, mother of Islam Dombaev, was represented by the organization named "Legal Initiative for Russia".