The ECHR awarded 52 thousand euros a resident of Chechnya who was forced under tortures to confess of murder

News

11 January 2022

The European Court of Human Rights awarded 52 thousand euros to Amur Ganayev from the Chechen Republic, who suffered from tortures in the Grozny Police Department. The ECHR established the fact of tortures applied against Amur, as well as acknowledged that the Russian state authorities did not perform an effective investigation of this incident.

Amur Ganayev was apprehended in Grozny, in January 2006.  According to Amur, for ten days he was beaten up with hands and feet and a rubber truncheon; electricity torture was also applied against him. “They put me against the wall and hit me at my kidneys, liver and thighs, and when I would fall on the floor, they were finishing me off right there”, Amur recalls.  These methods were applied by the police officers in order to force Ganayev to confess of murder, inflicting grave bodily harm, as well as of illegal purchasing and keeping weapons.

Having yielded to torture, he sighed the evidence which was demanded from him. Then he was moved to Pre-Trial Detention Facility, but, only several days later, he was taken to the department and subjected to tortures again. In addition, he was threatened with apprehension and tortures of his relatives in case he withdrew his previously provided testimony.

When he was taken to Pre-Trial Detention Facility No.1, Amur Ganayev was diagnosed with huge hematomas on both thighs and ribs damage.Later on, the medical forensic examination showed that he had post-traumatic encephalopathy and hematomas under the right eye.

The Prosecutor’s Office of the Chechen Republic issued seven refusals to initiate criminal proceedings. Due to that, in 2010, lawyers of the Committee applied to the ECHR. Amur’s complaint was joined with the complaints of other victims who suffered in the same police department. In 2006, Amur was sentenced to 11 years of prison term under articles on intentional homicide (Article 105 of the Criminal Code) and inflicting severe bodily harm (Article 111 of the Criminal Code) – these are the crimes, which he confessed of under torture. This verdict was quashed as the one based on the evidence examined during judicial proceedings with significant violations of the criminal and procedural law”. However, in April 2008, the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic issued a new verdict under the same articles of prosecution, according to which Amur Ganayev was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months of prison term.

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