Judge of Chechen SC disagrees with verdict on MIA's lawsuit against rights defenders

Polina Daurkina, a Judge of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya, expressed her "dissenting opinion" after approval by the appeal instance of the decision of the lower court on the suit on protection of reputation of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) against rights defenders and Murad Amriev, who stated that he had been tortured by policemen.

This is stated in the motivated appeal decision of the Chamber on Civil Cases of the Supreme Court (SC) of the Chechen Republic of August 21, received by members of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of Russian human rights organizations, working in Chechnya. The SC upheld the decision of the Leninsky District Court of Grozny.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 27, 2015, the court of Grozny granted the lawsuit on protection of honour and dignity of the Chechen MIA to the Committee against Torture (CaT) and Murad Amriev, a resident of Chechnya, who claimed torture by policemen. However, the court refused to collect 100,000 roubles in favour of the MIA as compensation of moral harm.

The Federal Judge Polina Daurkina found "the arguments of the court not based on law, as none of the respondents' arguments was legally assessed."

The decision of the Chechen SC will be challenged in the cassation order; it is also planned to file a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on violation of the freedom of expression, said Dmitry Yalikov, the lawyer of the JMG.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.