17 July 2018, 22:40
ECtHR awards compensation to Anna Politkovskaya's relatives
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found ineffective the investigation into the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", and ordered Russia to pay 20,000 euros of compensation to her relatives.
On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a well-known journalist, an observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", was killed in a lift of her house in the centre of Moscow. Five natives of Chechnya were sentenced in the case of the journalist's murder. Rights defenders declared that the Russian authorities demonstrated their unwillingness to find customers of the Anna Politkovskaya's murder.
A complaint about the ineffective investigation into the murder of Anna Politkovskaya was filed to the ECtHR by Ilya Politkovsky and Vera Politkovskaya, children of the journalist, her mother Raisa Mazepa and sister Elena Kudimova. The ECtHR found that the Russian authorities violated Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to life), failed to take measures to completely investigate the crime and did not identify the customers of the Anna Politkovskaya's murder, reports the decision published today on the ECtHR's website.
The decision of the Strasbourg Court notes that the Russian authorities extended the investigation into the Anna Politkovskaya's murder without compelling reasons, but did not examine the complainants' allegations that law enforcers and officials from the Chechen authorities might have been involved in the murder. In view of the fact that Anna Politkovskaya covered the conflict in Chechnya, those versions should have been examined, the ECtHR's document states.
The decision of the Strasbourg Court will come into force in three months if the Russian government does not challenge it.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 17, 2018 at 06:07 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
