European court fines Russia for human rights violations in Chechnya

Oct 4, 2007, 15:51 GMT

Strasbourg, France - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday fined Russia 95,000 euros (135,000 dollars) over the injury and execution of unarmed civilians by Russian servicemen in Chechnya in 2000.

The ruling refers to incidents that happened during an alleged massacre of 38 civilians in the Staropromyslovskiy district of Grozny, between December 1999 and January 2000.

The cases were referred to the ECHR by three women residing in Grozny and who have since emigrated to Norway, Belgium and Russia respectively. The three were awarded compensation ranging from 4,400 to 12,550 euros each as a result of the ruling.

According to a particularly gruesome account provided by the Strasbourg-based court, one of the three women left her home during the bombardment of Staropromyslovskiy and returned to Grozny on January 22, 2000 to find that her home had been destroyed.

'She spotted soldiers looting buildings and tried to hide, but was seen by them. She was taken to a courtyard where the soldiers shot at her and two other women. She was wounded and lost consciousness, waking when a soldier tore a gold earring from her ear,' the statement said.

'She fainted again and awoke with a diesel-soaked mattress on her legs. Her leg was burnt. She eventually managed to reach another house where she was given first aid,' the ECHR statement read.

'Relatives later took her to Ingushetia where she spent two months in hospital. Her left arm was left partially paralysed and, in 2002, she was officially recognised as disabled,' The two other women were also either wounded or had their relatives killed in extra-judicial executions.

The court found that in all three cases, the authorities had failed to carry out an effective criminal investigation despite being fully aware of the accusations.

The ECHR is an institution of the Council of Europe, an organization working for European integration that is separate from the European Union. Russia is one of its 47 members.