Will the Russian court rely on the decisions of the ECHR? From every iron they say that…

Will the Russian court rely on the decisions of the ECHR? From every iron they say no. However, this week a court in Moscow found that the Investigative Committee illegally refused to initiate criminal proceedings against victims of torture. The court made such conclusions after human rights activists of the Team Against Torture convinced it to recognize the ECHR decision in this case as binding.

June 09, 2022 Khoroshevsky District Court carried out resolution, which declared illegal the decision to refuse to initiate a criminal case. The investigation into the allegations of torture of Murad and Firuddin Ragimov was found incomplete and the decision unfounded.

In the process, the Team Against Torture attached the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights dated March 22, 2022 in the case of Ragimovs v. Russia, where the ECHR found the guilt of law enforcement officers in torturing the applicants and awarded 26 thousand euros each.

On February 7 of this year, despite the prosecutor’s position that the ECHR decisions are not binding for Russia, the Moscow City Court approved the decision of the district court and it entered into legal force.

“Although the Russian authorities have publicly refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the ECHR since the spring of last year, the corresponding law was adopted and came into force only in June 2022. This is probably one of the last cases when the Russian court referred to the positions of the ECHR,” comments the head of the Moscow branch of the CPT Georgy Ivanov