ECtHR awards 1.6 million euros to families of disappeared people in Northern Caucasus

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) awarded compensation of 80,000 euros to each complainant in cases on 20 natives of the republics of Northern Caucasus who were kidnapped in 2000-2006.

Since 2001, the ECtHR pronounced more than 250 decisions on complaints about forced disappearances of residents of Chechnya and Ingushetia, reported lawyers of the "Legal Initiative" project and the Ingush branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Today, the ECtHR has found the Russian authorities responsible for the kidnappings and probable deaths of 20 residents of Northern Caucasus in 2000-2006 and for the failure to investigate those crimes.

In particular, in 2009, Khatimat Saidova, a resident of Makhachkala, appealed to the ECtHR in connection with the disappearance of her son Salikh Saidov in 2005. He was detained in Moscow on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities, and after that Salikh Saidov disappeared.

Another complaint was filed by Zelimat Makhauri, a resident of Ingushetia. The woman claimed that on July 6, 2006, armed people took her son Sukhrap away with them from a house in the village of Nesterovskaya.

Besides, the ECtHR pronounced a decision concerning a complaint about the kidnapping in 2003 of four residents of Ingushetia, including Adam Patsuev, Ibragim Idigov, Salam Kerimov, and Lom-Ali Shaipov, the HRC "Memorial" reported.