ECtHR awards compensation to North-Caucasian residents for torture at police

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled on cases of several residents of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, who complained of cruel treatment, torture, illegal detentions by law enforcers, and absence of efficient inquiry into these violations.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 11, the ECtHR satisfied the complaint of 39 victims of the capture of the Beslan School and awarded them compensation for their suffered moral harm. Russian authorities failed to take steps to investigate the circumstances of the terror act and the reasons for hostages' deaths.

Besides, according to the decision of the ECtHR, EUR 503,000 was awarded to Russians-victims of torture, including residents of Chechnya. Thus, the Norwegian citizen, Adam Fredriksen (Aslan Ocherkhadjiev received Norwegian citizenship in 2016 and then changed his name), reported torture with electric shocks, beatings with batons and suffocation with a gas mask in 2005.

Torture is also mentioned in the complaints submitted by Dokka Djantemirov, Sultan Matsiev, Shamsudin Salavatov and Viskhan Khabibulaev, whom law enforcers suspected of participating in an illegal armed formation (IAF) in 2003. The applicants claimed that they were subjected to ill-treatment with electric shocks, strangulation, severe beatings with rubber truncheons, and threats of sexual violence. Law enforcers forced them to confess to terror acts against law enforcers in Chechnya. The ECtHR considered these men's complaints within the case "Djantemirov et al versus Russia".