23:50, 27 July 2020

ECtHR questions effectiveness of investigation into case on torture of Zaur Dadaev

Zaur Dadaev. Photo: REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) obliged the authorities of Russia to report whether a complaint about torture used against Zaur Dadaev, sentenced in a case on the murder of Boris Nemtsov, had been effectively investigated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 1, 2015, Zaur Dadaev retracted his earlier confession and claimed that he had given it under torture. The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) refused to institute a criminal case on the use of torture.

Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in Moscow on February 27, 2015. On July 13, 2017, in Moscow, the court found Zaur Dadaev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, and Khamzat Bakhaev, natives of Chechnya, guilty of the murder and sentenced them to 11-20 years of imprisonment. Zaur Dadaev, whom investigators treated as the killer who had committed the murder, was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment.

According to the complaint filed by Zaur Dadaev, from March 5 to 7, 2015, he was "kept in a basement of a building, being handcuffed to a radiator." "During those days, Zaur Dadaev was given water three or four times. He was not allowed to use a lavatory, but got an empty fuel canister for his needs. People who kidnapped the man used electric current to torture him," the complaint states.

"I've got an impression that investigators had received an instruction to solve a crime (murder) by any means and to do everything necessary to cover up another crime (torture)," said Anastasia Garina, a lawyer from the "Committee against Torture" (CaT).

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 27, 2020 at 01:22 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.