ECtHR awards 90,000 euros to relatives of missing Grozny resident

On March 31, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) obliged Russian authorities to pay compensation to the family of Zelimkhan Murdalov, who was severely beaten by law enforcers in 2001 in Grozny and then disappeared.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in November 2007, a court in Grozny sentenced Sergey Lapin, an employee of the Khanty-Mansi OMON (riot police), to 10.5 years in colony for torturing Zelimkhan Murdalov, a resident of Grozny.

According to the prosecution, Lapin, who was sent to Chechnya to help local law enforcers in January 2001, detained Zelimkhan Murdalov and tortured him, and then took him away to an unknown place. His further fate is unknown; and there is every reason to believe that he was killed, investigators believe.

The ECtHR has awarded 90,000 euros to the family of Zelimkhan Murdalov, finding violations of Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (mental suffering due to loss of one's relatives and authorities' indifference) and 13 (right to an efficient remedy) of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The interests of Murdalov's relatives were represented by lawyers of the "Legal Initiative" Human Rights Project, the "Mediazona" reported on March 31.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 1, 2020 at 10:09 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.