Court orders Russia to compensate man's disappearance in Ingushetia

Apr 1, 2010, 14:59 GMT

Strasbourg - The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday ordered Russia to pay 70,000 euros (94,000 dollars) compensation to relatives of a man who disappeared in Ingushetia.

The man, Bashir Mutsolgov, has been missing since he was detained by a group of armed men believed to be Russian military in the North Caucasus republic in 2003.

The court found that Russian authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Mutsolgov.

The ruling said there was no doubt the man, who was 28 at the time, had been abducted by agents of the Russian state during an unacknowledged security operation.

The court said that despite its request for a copy of the investigation file into the abduction, Russia had produced no documents from the case file.

It found that Mutsolgov's family had suffered distress and anguish as a result of his disappearance. The manner in which their complaints had been dealt with by Russian authorities 'had to be considered to constitute inhuman treatment,' the court said.