European Justice In Russia Might Be
Delayed
European Court ruled in case of Mutsayeva v Russia (24297/05) today. The
applicant was represented by lawyers of Human Rights Center Memorial (Russia)
and European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (UK). The case concerns detention and
disappearance of applicant's son Khizir Tepsurkayev in 2001. He was detained by
Russian federal forces at the road block-post in Chechnya. His whereabouts are
still unknown.
The Court held unanimously that there had been:
· two violations of Article 2 (right to life) of
the European Convention on Human Rights, on account of the Government not
having provided a plausible explanation for the disappearance of Khizir
Tepsurkayev and of not having carried out an effective investigation;
· a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of
inhuman or degrading treatment), on account of the psychological suffering of
the applicant, mother of Khizir Tepsurkayev, as a result of the disappearance
of her son;
· a violation of Article 5 (right to liberty and
security), on account of the unacknowledged detention of Khizir Tepsurkayev;
· a violation of Article 13 (right of an
effective remedy) in conjunction with Article 2, on account of the
impossibility for the applicant to obtain the identification and punishment of
those responsible.
Under Article 41 (just satisfaction) of the Convention, the Court awarded
Khizir Tepsurkayev’s mother 35,000 euros (EUR) in respect of
non-pecuniary damages and EUR 2,100 for costs and expenses. For full text
of judgment visit ECHR web-site: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=2&portal=hbkm&action=html&highlight=&sessionid=27017027&skin=hudoc-pr-en
This week a representative of Russian Ministry of Justice stated that Russia
planned to cease paying compensations to ECHR applicants for an indeterminate
period of time due to lack of funds in the federal budget.
HRC Memorial is concerned about the fact that Russian Government
almost never implements decisions of the European Court in the part of
individual and system measures. The only part of the judgments that Russia did
fulfill was paying compensations to the applicants. Non-payment of
compensations robs Russian citizens of a faint hope of individual justice. The
decision of Russian government to hold payments makes Russia subject to various
sanctions of the Council of Europe, and expulsion might be one of them.
June 23, 2009