European Court of Human Rights hands down judgment against Russia over Chechnya

On 4 October a press release was issued regarding three Chamber Judgments concerning life-threatening attacks and extra-judicial executions of unarmed civilians by Russian servicemen in the Staropromyslovskiy district of Grozny, Chechnya, in January 2000.

The Court found violations of Article 2 (the right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights in the cases of Goncharuk v. Russia, Goygova v. Russia and Makhauri v. Russia. 

The applicants Yelena Goncharuk and Kheyedi Makhauri were shot and left for dead and Petimat Goygova’s mother and brother were shot and killed.

The Court held unanimously that there had been: a violation of Article 2 concerning the attacks on Ms Goncharuk and Ms Makhauri and the killing of Ms Goygova’s mother and brother;  It also found that the same article had been violated in all three cases concerning the failure to conduct an effective investigation into the attacks or killings;, as well as a violation of Article 13 (the right to an effective remedy) in all three cases.  It did not find that there had been a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture) in respect of the failure to protect Ms Goygova’s mother and brother from torture

The full text of the press release can be found at: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?item=2&portal=hbkm&action=html&highlight=58643/00&sessionid=2494057&skin=hudoc-pr-fr