CASE OF ZHEBRAILOVA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 2 - Right to life (Article 2-1 - Life) (Substantive aspect);Violation of Article 2 - Right to life (Article 2-1 - Effective investigation) (Procedural aspect);Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Degrading treatment;Inhuman treatment) (Substantive aspect);Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Effective investigation) (Procedural aspect);Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Inhuman treatment) (Substantive aspect);Violation of Article 5 - Right to liberty and security (Article 5-1 - Lawful arrest or detention);Violation of Article 13 - Right to an effective remedy (Article 13 - Effective remedy);Violation of Article 13 - Right to an effective remedy (Article 13 - Effective remedy)
Dmitry Dedov;Elisabeth Steiner;Julia Laffranque;Khanlar Hajiyev;Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque
4. The applicants are: (1) Ms Isita (also spelled as Yisita) Zhebrailova, born in 1956; (2) Mr Shuddi Vakhayev, born in 1954, and (3) Mr Salavdi Zhebrailov, born in 1980. 5. The first and second applicants are the parents of Mr Balavdi (also spelled as Balauddi) Zhebrailov, born in 1982. The third applicant is Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov’s brother. The applicants reside in the village of Gekhi, the Chechen Republic. 6. At about 12 midnight on 25 April 2005 a group of four men wearing uniforms and armed with assault rifles burst into the applicants’ property at 23 Pervomayskaya Street in Gekhi. Two of the intruders were wearing masks. The applicants inferred that the intruders were law-enforcement officers. The men ordered the applicants to lie down and grabbed hold of Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov and the third applicant, who was in his underwear. They then dragged them outside, firing several shots in the air to prevent the first and second applicants, as well as their relatives L.Sh. and Kh.A., from following them. The men threw the Zhebrailov brothers into a UAZ vehicle with a beacon on the roof and marked “police” (милиция), which was parked about 300 metres away from the applicants’ house, and drove off. 7. On the outskirts of Gekhi, Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov and the third applicant were transferred from the UAZ vehicle to a VAZ-99 vehicle driven by officer S. of the 2nd Regiment of the Road Police of the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic (hereinafter “the 2nd regiment”). The VAZ-99 vehicle took the road leading to Grozny and on the journey the men physically assaulted the Zhebrailov brothers. After a while the car passed through a checkpoint and Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov and the third applicant were taken to the premises of the 2nd regiment. The third applicant recognised the premises because he had come there two months earlier with a friend to apply for a job. 8. Upon arrival the Zhebrailov brothers were put in a cell in a basement, beaten with rifle butts and interrogated about a pistol. After a while they were separated and the third applicant was placed in a cell with another arrestee of about forty years old. From his cell the third applicant could hear Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov screaming whilst being beaten. 9. Shortly thereafter the persons, whom the applicants considered to be officers of the 2rd regiment, returned and physically assaulted the third applicant, saying that Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov had confirmed that the third applicant had a pistol and threatening to take the latter to the military base in Khankala. They kicked and beat the third applicant all over his body and also hit him several times on the head with a rifle butt. Sometime later they dragged the third applicant outside, gave him police trousers and a shirt belonging to his brother and pushed him into a grey UAZ vehicle equipped with a partition for prisoners’ transport. The car carrying the third applicant and two police officers passed through a checkpoint and after a short time stopped in the vicinity of the “northern market” in Grozny, where the third applicant was released. The third applicant then went to the home of an uncle of his who lives in Grozny, from where the third applicant’s relatives took him home on the morning on 26 April 2005. 10. Upon his return home, the third applicant had numerous bruises on his chest, back and legs and also wounds on his head, sustained as a result of the blows with the rifle butt. 11. On 26 April 2005 the third applicant’s relatives took him to the local hospital. While queuing there, the third applicant spotted one of his abductors, officer S. of the 2nd regiment. Fearing reprisals, the applicants immediately left, without obtaining medical assistance. At home the third applicant was treated by a family friend Z., a nurse. She bandaged his head and gave him medication. As a result of the ill-treatment the third applicant could barely walk. He had to stay at home for a week. 12. The applicants have had no news of Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov since his abduction. 13. In support of their account of events, the applicants furnished written statements by L.Sh. and Kh.A. dated 12 and 14 December 2006, and detailed written statements by the first to third applicants dated 5 May and 12 December 2006, 17 January 2007, and 7 January, 15 and 30 March 2010. 14. The Government submitted that the national investigation had established that on the night of 25/26 April 2005, unidentified armed men in camouflage uniforms had burst into the applicants’ property and had abducted Mr Balavdi Zhebrailov and the third applicant. The abductors had assaulted the third applicant and then released him. 15. The Government submitted some 280 pages from criminal case-file no. 47041 which was opened to look into the events of 26 April 2005. The submitted documents covered the period from April 2005 to December 2009. Many of the documents furnished by the Government were incomplete, such as witness statements submitted only in part. Some documents were illegible. The relevant information may be summarised as follows. 16. The local police were informed of the abduction of the Zhebrailov brothers at 2 a.m. on 26 April 2005. At about 2.15 a.m. on the same day a group of police officers arrived at the applicants’ property. They inspected the crime scene, seized a bullet cartridge found during their inspection and interviewed eight eyewitnesses, including the applicants. The interview records and police officers’ reports referred to the fact that the abductors had worn camouflage uniforms, carried assault rifles, used a UAZ vehicle ‒ with a beacon and a muddied licence plate bearing the inscription “Grozny” ‒ as well as a VAZ-99 vehicle with blackened windows and licence plate number “862”, and had fired shots into the air. In the third applicant’s interview record, he described in detail the circumstances of the abduction and the ensuing events, including his alleged ill-treatment. He also explicitly stated that he and his brother had been detained at the 2nd regiment’s premises and stressed that the men who had interrogated them and assaulted them had not concealed that they belonged to the police. 17. On 20 June 2005 the Urus-Martan district prosecutor’s office (hereinafter “the district prosecutor’s office”) instituted a criminal investigation into the events of 25-26 April 2005 under Article 126 § 2 of the Criminal Code (aggravated kidnapping). 18. On 27 June 2005 the first applicant was granted victim status in case no. 47041. 19. The ballistic examination of the bullet cartridge seized at the crime scene, carried out on 30 June 2005, established that the bullet could have been shot by an AK-47 assault rifle and that the gun could be identified. 20. In the ensuing period between June 2005 and December 2009 the investigators mainly re-interviewed the individuals questioned by the police on 26 April 2005. They also questioned some further witnesses ‒ residents of Gekhi ‒ some of whom confirmed the applicants’ account of events; others stated that they had learnt about the abduction from the applicants. The third applicant’s uncle, R.Zh., interviewed in September 2007, stated that when the third applicant had arrived at his home in Grozny on the morning of 26 April 2005, his head had been covered in blood. When interviewed as a witness in October 2009, Z. stated that after the third applicant’s return home in April 2005, she had treated him for wounds to his head and had given him pain-killing injections. 21. The investigation in case no. 47041 was suspended in August 2005, March 2006, September 2007, November 2009 and on the latest occasion on 4 March 2010. Supervising prosecutors repeatedly set aside those decisions, ordering the investigation to be resumed and pointing to the investigators’ failure to take a number of important steps. For instance, on 26 January 2006, 21 August 2007 and then again, as late as on 23 October 2009, the supervising prosecutors pointed out the investigators’ failure to inspect the premises of the 2nd regiment and verify the allegation of the involvement of its officers in the crime with the participation of the third applicant, in spite of his specific assertions that he had been detained on those premises and that the regiment officers had not concealed that they belonged to the police. The investigators, who had on various dates forwarded several information requests to local law-enforcement agencies to verify those allegations, were instructed to resume the proceedings and take the necessary steps. From the documents submitted it is unclear whether the requested steps were taken. 22. The investigation in case no. 47041 is still pending. 23. On 23 April 2007 the Urus-Martan District Court dismissed as unfounded the applicants’ complaint that the investigation had been ineffective and that the investigators’ had refused to allow the applicants access to the case file. The court stated that the investigators had taken all possible investigative steps and that the applicants’ arguments concerning the procrastination of the investigation were not convincing. 24. On 14 February 2006 the investigators granted the third applicant victim status in criminal case no. 47041 and ordered his medical examination. 25. Expert report no. 152 of 20 February 2006 stated that the third applicant had two scars on the top of the head, which could have been sustained in April 2005 as a result of the impact of a blunt, firm object. 26. On 1 March 2006, in the light of the expert’s findings, the investigators also classified the abductors’ acts under Article 116 § 1 of the Criminal Code (application of physical force to another person, causing physical pain but not resulting in health damage).