The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday condemned Russia for violating the right to life and the absence of an effective investigation after the killing of three young Muslims by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents in 2012, according to AFP.
Magomed Haiauri and Islam Tashiev, both students in Moscow in the fifth year, and Artur Karsamauli, a law graduate of a higher education institution in the Russian capital, were shot dead in July 2012 – while on vacation – on campus State University of Ingushetia in the Russian Caucasus by FSB agents.
An investigation was later opened against the three victims for illegal possession of weapons and attempted murder of a public official.
During the investigation, the FSB said it had been informed of a gathering of members of illegal armed groups on campus and that agents who had traveled to the scene had only retaliated. These statements were not confirmed by witnesses.
The investigation was closed and then reopened by the authorities several times and has not yet been completed, Agerpres reports.
On the contrary, the Russian civilian and then military authorities refused to open a criminal investigation despite repeated requests from the victims’ families, who claimed that their relatives had never been armed and had recently returned from Moscow where they were students.
In fact, Magomed Haiauri’s relatives said that he was a student at the Moscow State Technical University of Radio, Electronics and Automation Engineering and had submitted his documents to be hired to work at the Russian State Archives under the Russian presidency, according to Georgia. Times. His acceptance into this position came in Ingushetia already after his death, his parents say, according to the same publication.
The ECHR judges unanimously found Russia guilty of violating the right to life and the right to an effective investigation, guaranteed by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Russia was ordered to pay 60,000 euros to the family of each victim, a significant amount in terms of the Court’s case law.
Based in Strasbourg, the ECHR is the body responsible for providing a judicial response to violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, ratified by 47 states meeting within the Council of Europe.
Editor : A.C.
