21 May 2007, 22:41
Petrov: Russians apply to European Court because of Chechnya conflict and imperfect trials
The European Court for Human Rights is becoming for many Russians the last hope for fair and impartial consideration of their cases. Alexander Petrov, deputy director of the Russian Representative Office of the NGO Human Rights Watch, has explained to the "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" (Independent Paper) how the Strasbourg Court builds its relations with the Russian Federation and its citizens.
According to the human rights defender, Russia's leadership by the number of complaints to the European Court for Human Rights is a result of human rights violations in Chechnya: "The conflict is still burning and there is no feeling that the situation varies essentially. People there continue to talk about kidnappings, and although sometimes people return, often beaten and tortured, quite a lot of kidnappings are accompanied by subsequent disappearances of citizens."
Besides, Petrov asserts that Russia is the largest by population, therefore statistically, more applications will naturally arrive from Russian that from other countries.
Another reason of Strasbourg Court's popularity lies in the problems of Russian judicial system.
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