The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has fined Russia 200 Thousand Euros over kidnapping of 3 Chechen civilians in 2000.

Here are the press releases:

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Press Release
ECHR 326 (2013)
07.11.2013

The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing the following judgements.

Bopayeva and Others v. Russia (no. 40799/06)

The applicants are ten Russian nationals from three families, who were born between 1917 and 1970 and live or lived in the village of Martan-Chu, Urus-Martan district and Grozny, Chechnya. The case concerned the disappearance of their close family members: Luiza Dagayeva (maiden name Bopayeva), born in 1972; Sharip Khaysumov, born in 1956; and Ramzan Alaudinov, born in 1963. All three of them were detained on 17 April 2000 in Grozny and taken to the temporary department of the interior of the Oktyabrskiy district (the Oktyabrskiy VOVD); the families have had no news of them since. The applicants immediately started to look for their relatives and contacted the authorities about their disappearance. In August and September 2000, criminal investigation files were opened. The investigation was subsequently adjourned and reopened on a number of occasions and has been pending for years without having established the identities of the perpetrators or the fate of the applicants’ missing relatives. The domestic criminal investigation established that at the same time a number of other suspicious “disappearances” and an incident of torture had occurred at the Oktyabrskiy VOVD. Relying on Article 2 (right to life), the applicants complained that State officials had been responsible for the disappearance of their relatives and that the authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation. They further complained of a breach of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) and Article 5 (right to liberty and security) as a result of the mental suffering caused to them by the disappearance of their relatives and the unlawfulness of their detention. Finally, they alleged a violation of Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), as they had had no effective remedy in respect of those complaints.

Violation of Article 2 (right to life) – in respect of Luiza Dagayeva, Sharip Khaysumov and Ramzan Alaudinov
Violation of Article 2 (procedure) – in respect of the failure to investigate effectively the disappearance and deaths of the applicants’ relatives
Violation of Article 3 – in respect of the applicants
Violation of Article 5 – in respect of the applicants’ relatives, on account of their unlawful detention
Violation of Article 13 in conjunction with Articles 2 and 3

Just satisfaction: EUR 3,000 to the parents of Sharip Khaysumov, EUR 3,000 to the mother of Ramzan Alaudinov, and EUR 6,000 to the wife of Ramzan Alaudinov in respect of pecuniary damage; EUR 60,000 jointly to the mother and brother of Luiza Dagayeva, EUR 60,000 jointly to the parents and siblings of Sharip Khaysumov, and EUR 60,000 jointly to the mother and wife of Ramzan Alaudinov in respect of non-pecuniary damage; and EUR 7,183 to the applicants jointly in respect of costs and expenses.