Relatives of people from Chechen "execution list" turn to ECtHR

The authorities of the Russian Federation have failed to conduct an efficient inquiry into extrajudicial executions of Chechen residents, their relatives complained to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 23, 2019, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the Committee against Torture (CaT), and the "Novaya Gazeta" presented testimonies of witnesses to detentions and disappearances of Chechen residents from the so-called "execution list". Rights defenders stated that the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) had refused to initiate criminal cases on the possible killing of 27 residents of Chechnya. The Chechen authorities treated the new information about extrajudicial executions as fiction.

24 relatives of eight people from the "execution list" have stated that their relatives had been detained by law enforcers and then disappeared and probably perished, while the authorities failed to admit that they had been detained, the press service of the HRC "Memorial" has stated.

"According to the position of the ECtHR, people, whose relatives have fallen victim to forced disappearances, can be recognized as victims of inhuman treatment because of the suffering they have experiences," Rustam Matsev, a lawyer of the "Legal Initiative", has explained.

Rights defenders have found out that 25 out of 27 persons from the "execution list" were taken away by law enforcers in the eyes of witnesses, and then disappeared.