News

25 August 2015

RJI reports on domestic remedies for disappearances in the North Caucasus and on the establishment of remains to the Committee of Ministers

On 25 August 2015 RJI made two submissions to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoM) concerning various aspects of the execution of the judgment in the case of Israilova and others v Russia. The applicant’s son, Sharpuddin Israilov, disappeared in December 2002 from Khankala military base in Grozny.

29 July 2015

RJI submits observations to the Committee of Ministers concerning execution of the judgment Tangiyev v Russia

On 29 July 2015 RJI submitted observations to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoM) concerning execution of the judgment of the Court in Tangiyev v Russia. The submission reported on the final outcome of the applicant’s re-trial in Russia following the decision of the Russian Supreme Court of December 2013 to quash the applicant’s conviction and send his case for re-examination before the Supreme Court of Chechnya.

26 March 2015

Two years after ECtHR judgment, Supreme Court upholds new conviction of torture victim

The Russian Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of Timur Tangiyev following his re-trial before the Supreme Court of Chechnya, which was plagued with procedural and other irregularities, said “Russian Justice Initiative”. The re-trial was ordered on 25 December 2013 by the Russian Supreme Court, after quashing Tangiyev’s conviction of a raft of serious crimes following a finding by the European Court of Human Rights that Mr Tangiyev’s trial and resulting conviction had been unfair because of its reliance on evidence obtained under torture. By the time Mr Tangiyev’s case reached the Presidium of the Supreme Court in 2013, he had served ten years out of his 22-year sentence.

13 February 2015

ECHR Communicates Case of Kidnapped Bride in Ingushetia

On 12 February 2015, the European Court of Human Rights communicated a case to the Russian Government concerning the lack of investigation into circumstances that led a young woman to lapse into a coma in Ingushetia. The case concerns a young woman who was kidnapped into marriage, and later returned to her mother’s house, having lapsed into a vegetative state. She had previously been in very good health all of her life.

24 December 2014

Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Rasul Kudayev sentenced to life in prison in Russia

The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria handed down lengthy prison sentences from 10 years to life for over 50 detainees accused on terrorism charges, including a life sentence for former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Rasul Kudayev, Russian Justice Initiative reported today. A side from Mr Kudayev, four other detainees received life sentences. Kudayev and the 56 other detainees have been held in pre-trial detention for as long as 9 years in certain cases, awaiting trial for over four years, and then awaiting the Court’s judgment.