JURIST - Paper Chase: Russia responsible for Chechen deaths: ECHR

[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] ruled [judgment text] Thursday that Russian authorities were responsible for the deaths of four members of a Chechen family. The court ordered Russia to pay $114,000 to the family of Zura Sharaniyevna Bitiyeva, who was a political figurehead and anti-war campaigner in Chechnya. She, her husband, one of their sons, and her brother were all shot in the head in 2003. The ECHR found that the killings were carried out by Russia state workers, and that Russian authorities failed to thoroughly investigate the killings. Russia has three months to appeal the ruling.

Last month, the ECHR ruled [JURIST report] in another case that Russian authorities were responsible for the 2001 death of a Chechen man who died after he was taken into Russian custody during a raid. In April, the ECHR ordered Russia to compensate a Chechen woman [JURIST report] for the disappearance and alleged killing of her husband in 2000. The president of the ECHR has said almost a fifth of the 90,000 complaints currently before the court name the Russian government as a defendant. AP has more.

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