European Court finds Russia guilty of four disappearances in Chechnya

The European Court on Human Rights has found the authorities of Russia guilty of disappearances of four men, which happened in different districts of Chechnya in the period from May 2001 to November 2002; this was reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Arsen Sakalov, Director of the Ingush NGO named "Legal Initiative", which rendered assistance to the applicants.

Sharani Askharov, Musa Ahmadov, Adam Ilyasov and Vakhid Musikhanov have been recognized missing and perished. All of them had been detained by federal militaries. The inquiries into their disappearances brought no results and have been recognized by the Strasbourg Court to be insufficient.

The European Court has obliged the Government of the Russian Federation to pay out compensations worth 35 and more thousand euros to each of the applicants - close relatives of the casualties.

As to the disappearance of the trainee of the Chechen militia Movsar Tagirov, the verdict on whose case was also announced today in Strasbourg, the Court found the guilt of the authorities unproved. Nevertheless, the inquiry into this case was also found inefficient by the European Court on Human Rights; therefore, Tagirov's relatives have been awarded a modest sum of compensation - about 8,000 euros.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier that on May 18, 2001, Russian federal forces held a special operation in the village of Serzhen-Yurt and detained Sharani Askharov and eight more persons. Six of them were later released. The seventh was found dead. Sharani and one more man disappeared. Russian media then reported Sharani was killed during the special operation, but the authorities denied this fact.

The case "Akhmadova versus Russia" deals with detention on March 6, 2002, at the block-post by Russian militaries of Musa Akhmadov, a resident of Chechnya. According to the Military Prosecutor's Office of the Chechen Republic, Musa was kept by the FSB employees in Khatuni village. On the following day, militaries told Musa's relatives that he had been transferred to the main military base of Russian troops in Khankala. Since then, there was no data about Musa's whereabouts.

The case "Musikhanovs versus Russia" runs that on November 9, 2002, Russian militaries detained Vakhid Musikhanov in his house in Urus-Martan. Then, Vakhid disappeared.

The case "Ilyasova versus Russia" deals with the fact of detention of Adam Ilyasov. On November 15, 2002, Russian militaries arrived in an armoured troop carrier (ATC) to the house of applicants in the village of Mesker-Yurt and detained Adam Ilyasov who subsequently disappeared.

The case "Tagirova et al versus Russia" deals with detention by Russian militaries of Movsar Tagirov on February 7, 2003. Movsar Tagirov, a trainee of the Chechen militia, was detained by Russian militaries in his house in Urus-Martan. Movsar's father, an officer of internal troops, saw militaries put him into a car parked nearby. Since then, nothing is known about Movsar's fate.