A correspondent from Waynakh Online has reported that a Chechen refugee, who lives in Turkey, won a case against the country in the European Court of Human Rights on October 19.

On October 19, 2010, the European Court of Human Rights had 21 Chamber judgments, one of them being, “Ruslan Kurkaev v. Turkey”. The case was given no.10424/05.

According to the court records, Ruslan Kurkaev is a Chechen national who was born in 1983. Fearing for his life due to the ongoing barbaric Russian occupation of his homeland, he left Chechnya in August 2000 and went to Istanbul. In June of 2004, the Anti-Terrorist Branch of the Turkish police arrested him unlawfully during the NATO summit in Istanbul.

The court examined the claims of the Chechen man and decided that his detention was a violation of Article 5 §§ 1 and 4 (right to liberty and security) of the Convention. Also, his detention in the Foreigners’ Department of the Istanbul Security Headquarters for 91 days in an overcrowded cell with no windows, beds or access to fresh air or exercise, is a clear violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the Convention.

In this respect, the court ordered Turkey to pay 12,000 Euros for non-pecuniary damage and 3,500 Euros for costs and expenses.

When we receive the whole decision, we will publish it in our ECHR section.

*The text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco