ECtHR recognizes violation of Chechen refugees' rights by Lithuania

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has awarded compensation to a Chechen family, to which Lithuania refused to grant asylum.

In April-May 2017, a family of seven persons three times filed an application for asylum in Lithuania, but every time got refusals. They failed to get into the territory of the European Union and were extradited to Belarus. The court has obliged Lithuania to pay 22,000 euros to the Chechen family.

The father of five children said that he had been persecuted by Chechen law enforcers. His house was attacked by masked gunmen. He associated it with his participation in the Second Chechen War. Unable to emigrate in 2009, he went to work for the state security system, where he participated in counterterrorist operations and ensured safety of high-ranking Chechen officials. In 2015, he left the work. In March 2017, law enforcers forced him to become their informant. "The applicant was beaten up and tortured with electric current," the ECtHR has noted.

Unable to obtain asylum in Poland or Lithuania, the family remained in Belarus. In October-December 2017, summonses were sent to their relatives in Chechnya, obliging them to appear at the police. When such a summons arrived in Belarus in December 2017, the family was forced to return to Russia. One of the applicants was detained there. When released in February 2018, he stated that he had been beaten up at the SIZO (pre-trial prison).

After his release, the man reunited with his family in a refugee centre in Poland, where they has again applied for asylum.