"Memorial": refusal of the European Court to request from Russia new investigation of crimes in Chechnya is unacceptable

Yesterday, December 4, in its ruling on the complaints from Chechen residents, the European Court on Human Rights again declined the applicants' request to oblige Russian authorities to conduct new investigation on disappearances and death of their relatives and to hold the guilty persons responsible.

Kirill Koroteyev, lawyer of the  human rights center "Memorial", informs the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the court even does not even consider it necessary to request that the state should offer public apology to the victims' relatives for the crimes committed by its representatives. Neither does it request the search of the victims' bodies and their re-burial. This is what was demanded by applicant Raisa Bersunkayeva whose son had been taken away by the "federals" and disappeared afterwards.

In the case of "Umayeva vs Russia" the court refused to request new investigation. However, Din Shpilman, judge from Luxemburg, gave a dissenting opinion and stated that, in his view, the applicant's request must be granted.

Koroteyev gives an example of the American Court on Human Rights for which such rulings are a routine procedure: "On similar cases, the American Court regularly grants not only monetary compensation but also public apology by the authorities and the search for the bodies, burial of the bodies if they were not buried properly and measures aimed at preserving the memory of the victims of armed conflicts".

The expert notes that there is no such practice at the European Court.