Court rules against Russia in Chechen killing

The European Court of Human Rights has found Russian authorities responsible for the extra-judicial killings of a Chechen human rights activist and her family who were shot in the head by Russian-speaking "state agents."

In a ruling yesterday - the latest in a series to condemn Russia - for grave human rights abuses in Chechnya, Moscow was ordered to pay €85,000 (£57,000) in moral damages to the victims' relatives.

Zura Sharaniyevna Bitiyeva, a prominent anti-war campaigner in Chechyna who was a member of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, complained to Strasbourg of having been tortured during a month-long detention in 2000. Three years later, while the court case was pending, she was executed, along with her brother and a son, in the family home during an early morning raid by masked men.

Her daughter then applied to the European court about her mother's killing and was herself harassed by the authorities.

Zura Bitiyeva and her son Idris were initially ordered to report to the local police station for a passport check in January 2000. But instead of being allowed to return home, they were sent to Chernokozovo prison where guards told her she would never leave alive. The facility was a so-called "filtration" camp notorious for the torture and rape of women and children, according to Amnesty International.

Ms Bitiyeva was hit with rifle butts during her detention and saw other detainees being beaten, according to witness statements. She became ill and required hospital treatment after being denied medical attention for existing conditions. In February 2000 she was cleared of all charges.

The court ruling said it was "inconceivable that, in a state subject to the rule of law, a person could be deprived of his or her liberty in a detention facility over which for a significant period of time no responsible authority was exercised by a competent state institution.

'This situation fosters impunity for all kinds of abuses."

The court heard that on 21 May 2003, 11 masked men wearing camouflage gear drove in an unmarked car to Ms Bitiyeva's house at 3.30am, at a time when her village was surrounded by military roadblocks. They covered her mouth with tape and bound her hands before shooting her in the face and hands.

Her husband, brother and son had their hands bound, one was hooded, all were shot in the back of the head. Ms Bitiyeva's daughter and another of her sons hid from the killers behind an armchair, the court said.

The court said witness statements indicated the killings were carried out by state agents, based on descriptions of the way the killers were dressed, the vehicles they used and the fact that they were able to travel unhindered during curfew hours.

The court also said witness testimony on the killers' methods - such as checking passports, putting hoods over detainees' heads and the execution style of the killings - also led it to conclude that Russian personnel were behind the slayings. Russia has three months to appeal.

Dozens of similar cases are pending at the Strasbourg court. But human rights organisations are concerned that Chechens are deterred by reprisals against applicants to the European court whose family members have been killed, ranging from harassment to death threats.

The applicants were represented by the Russian human rights group Memorial and the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre. The centre's director, Philip Leach, said the decision "casts a spotlight on the extent of human rights violations by the Russian authorities in Chechnya" and strengthened the case for an independent international inquiry into gross human rights violations in the republic.

An estimated 100,000 people have died in Chechnya since the republic's first war of independence with Moscow in 1994. Human rights groups have also reported mass disappearances, blaming them on pro-Moscow Chechen security forces and Russian troops.