European Court adjudges almost 200,000 euros to three women from Chechnya on cases versus Russia

The European Court for Human Rights has obliged Russia to pay out almost 200,000 euros of compensation to three ladies - natives of Chechnya; this is a record sum for one day's work of the Court in Strasbourg.

Today, the Court has considered three cases versus Russia: the claims of Elena Goncharuk, Kheidi Makhauri and Petimat Goigova. The court has ruled that in these cases several Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights have been breached - the right to live, to efficient legal defence and to fair trial, the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports.

The "Legal Initiative for Russia" has explained that on January 19, 2000, the Russian federal troops undertook a large attack in the Staropromyslovskiy District located in the northern part of Grozny.

When Maryam Goigovа was wounded during the attack, her son Magomed Goigov and two more men tried to help her to get out of Grozny. At a block-post, Russian soldiers shot Maryam in her head without any warning and took away the three men who tried to help her. On February 10, 2000, Maryam Goigova's daughter found the bodies of Magomed and the two other men in a garage near the place where Maryam was assassinated.

When the attack was launched, Elena Goncharuk and five other persons found shelter in a cellar. As soon as the attack had abated, Russian militaries appeared and ordered them to get out of the cellar. When they obeyed, the soldiers started shooting at them. Five were killed at once. Elena was wounded and lost her consciousness.

When on January 20, Kheidi Makhauri heard on Russian TV that the federal forces had completely taken under control the settlement where she had lived in the Staropromyslovskiy District, she decided to return to Grozny and examine her house. After she had found it completely ruined, Kheidi and two other women came up to a group of 30-40 Russian servicemen who were taking the property out of houses and loading it into an armoured troop-carrier. The soldiers detained them, put bandages on their eyes and brought them into the yard of a house, where they opened fire at the women. Two of them were shot dead at once, while Kheidi was only wounded, but lost her consciousness.

Despite numerous complaints of the victims and human rights organizations who had immediately documented the massacre, the prosecutor's office of Grozny started the investigation into the incident only after Anna Politkovskaya had published an article about the events in the "Novaya Gazeta."

The "Legal Initiative for Russia" represented the applicant's interests in the Goigovа versus Russia case at the European Court for Human Rights. The applicants' interests in the cases of Goncharuk versus Russia and Makhauri versus Russia were represented by the European Centre for Defence of Human Rights and the Human Rights Centre "Memorial."