Τorture during police detention, ineffective investigation and breaches of family life
JUDGMENT
Abdulkadyrov and Dakhtayev v. Russia 10.07.2018 (no. 35061/04)
SUMMARY
Ill treatment during police detention, lack of effective investigation that led to conviction and detention far away from the applicants’ families. Not registered violent detention (electric shock while wearing gas masks or bags on their heads, and threats of rape and blackmail). Infringement for torture and lack of effective investigations (Article 3), fair trial (Article 6 § 1) and article on respect for private and family life concerning sentencing of 3000 km away from their family environment (Article 8)
PROVISIONS
Article 3
Article 6 § 1
Article 8
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The case concerned the applicants’ being ill-treated while in police custody, the lack of a proper
investigation into their allegations, the fact that the evidence obtained from the ill-treatment was
used to convict them, as well as the applicants’ being allocated to remote penal facilities for serving
their sentences.
Mr Abdulkadyrov and Mr Dakhtayev were arrested in September 2002 in the Chechen capital
Grozny. They allege that during several days each of unrecorded detention they were forced to
confess to being members of an illegal armed group and to the murder of several people, including
police officers and military servicemen. The ill-treatment included being beaten with truncheons,
receiving electric shocks while they had gas masks or bags on their head, and threats of rape and
blackmail.
They were convicted in May 2004 and given sentences of 25 years’ imprisonment, which were
reduced slightly on appeal. The domestic courts based their verdicts on the applicants’ confessions
and dismissed their complaints of ill-treatment and of not being able to examine prosecution
witnesses at the trial. They were subsequently sent to serve their sentences in correctional colonies
that are more than 3,000 km from their home region.
Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of torture and of inhuman or degrading treatment), the applicants
complained of ill-treatment by the police and of the lack of a proper investigation. They also
complained that their trial had been unfair under Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) in particular, and
about being sent to serve their sentences so far away from their relatives under Article 8 (right to
respect for private and family life).
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Violation of Article 3 (torture)
Violation of Article 3 (investigation)
Violation of Article 6 § 1
Violation of Article 8
Just satisfaction: EUR 37,000 each to Mr Abdulkadyrov and Mr Dakhtayev for non-pecuniary damage
and EUR 4,150 jointly to the applicants for costs and expenses(echrcaselaw.com editing).
