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Justice Denied in the North Caucasus

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Justice Denied in the North Caucasus Justice denied in the North Caucasus Report 2020 Justice denied in the North Caucasus Status of investigation and prosecution of emblematic cases of killings, abductions, disappearances and torture Photos: Memorial Human Rights Centre | internet media Caucasian Knot - www.caucasianknot.info | Committee Against Torture Justice denied in the North Caucasus Acknowledgements Acknowledgments The Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center (NEDC) would like to thank the Interregional NGO Committee Against Torture, Centre de la Protection Internationale, and the Memorial Human Rights Centre for their co-operation in preparing this report. Justice denied in the North Caucasus Preface Preface In search of accountability The Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center (NEDC) is established by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in co-operation with Russian and international human rights organizations to ensure systematic collection and preservation of documentation of grave human rights abuses in the North Caucasus. At present, the NEDC has collected the largest electronic archive of relevant documentation in the world. It has created a database containing information on human rights violations committed during conflicts between federal Russian forces and groups of separatists in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan since the 1990s and up to the present time. The NEDC specializes in analysis of the most serious crimes which may amount to core international crimes, whilst prioritizing information on past violations. However, parts of the NEDC’s activities also focus on present events. Analysis of the information collected by the NEDC continues as new information becomes available. The founding members’ vision for the NEDC is that it will become an important contributor to truth and justice seeking initiatives in the North Caucasus region. The widespread and systematic abuses that have taken place in the region within the context of conflicts, counter-terrorism operations as well as repression, have not received the attention of the international community that they deserve. Neither have Russian federal nor regional authorities launched effective truth and justice seeking initiatives. The NEDC aims to contribute to bringing much-needed attention to the past and present precarious human rights situation in the North Caucasus, and to fight the prevailing culture of impunity. The work on this report started in February 2016 when the Norwegian Helsinki Committee received an inquiry from the Rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the human rights situation in the North Caucasus. The PACE Rapporteur requested the provision of any information or documentation available to the NEDC with respect to the latest developments in the investigation and prosecution of a list of emblematic human rights cases in the region. The PACE Rapporteur required the information for the purposes of drafting his report, Human rights in the North Caucasus: what follow-up to Resolution 1738 (2010)?, for the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. However, upon commencing their work on the cases, the NEDC team soon realized that a vast amount of information on the cases was available online, from different information donors and from the NEDC database. Accordingly, the text of the report evolved, and the result is the present updated and expanded exposé of the cases. Bjørn Engesland Secretary General Justice denied in the North Caucasus Introduction Introduction The fight against radicalization in the North Caucasus has been on the agenda in Russia for a long time. This period of seeming stability, from the two wars in Chechnya 1994-96 and 1999-2000 until now, has however often been disrupted by instances of violence. In our view, a successful fight against radicalization requires a renewed belief in the rule of law by authorities and by the public alike. There is need for a functioning system of justice in Russia that can prevent and remedy human rights violations. Success also rests upon effective co-operation between Russian state authorities and civil society. It is only with these instruments in hand that the authorities of any country, including the Russian Federation, can effectively move towards rebuilding genuine trust in national mechanisms of justice. The selected human rights cases presented in this report trace the reactions of the Russian investigative and prosecutorial authorities towards cases of abductions, killings, disappearances and torture occurring in the North Caucasus. These indicative and prominent cases reveal a grim picture. Firstly, many victims in these cases can be characterized as whistleblowers; that is, active and well-known journalists, human rights activists, lawyers, and witnesses who have exposed wrongdoings committed by officials. These victims belong to the very category which defines any open, stable and democratic state. The disappearance of the Ingush public prosecutor Rashid Ozdoyev in 2004, the unsolved murders of Natalia Estemirova in 2009 and Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, the abduction of Zarema Gaysanova in 2009, the unsolved murders of Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov in 2009, and imprisonment based on fabricated charges against Ruslan Kutayev in 2014, all provide striking illustrations of a climate where activists and intellectuals are at peril for speaking about human rights violations in the region. The subsequent handling of these criminal cases also promises little prospect of finding justice within the national system. This causes trauma not only for the family members of the victims, but for society in general, where any attempt at honest dialogue is suppressed. In order to overcome this, authorities should seek partnership with members of civil society, and not view them with annoyance or as an encumbrance. Secondly, the circumstances surrounding the commission of these crimes and the subsequent lack of genuine investigation and prosecution point to the conclusion that the very authorities which ought to be protecting and preventing these crimes often stand behind them or at least assist in concealing them. For instance, victims of abduction are often held captive in buildings belonging to state authorities (as in the case of Islam Umarpashayev). Moreover, when handling cases, public officials do not shy away from demanding victims and witnesses to change their testimony to a more favorable version (as in the case of Sayd-Salekh Ibragimov). Norwegian Helsinki Committee Report 2020 In some cases, there is evidence that victims suffer due to the actions of law enforcement agents. Practices of forging case documents within the state bodies have been occasionally reported (as in the case of Zarema Gaysanova). In practically all cases, authorities could and should have done much more to effectively protect or locate the victim and punish those responsible. These examples illustrate why it is so difficult to believe in justice in the North Caucasus. It is only through displaying their will and creating the capacity to genuinely investigate crimes, that the authorities can gain the trust of the public in law enforcement. Finally, flagrant violations of human rights sometimes go unpunished despite widely known information concerning those who guided and executed them. For instance, irrespective of legal findings in the case of the indiscriminate bombardment of the village of Katyr-Yurt in February 2000, those implicated in the bombardment continue to receive promotions and recognition, as has been seen in the case of Major- General Vladimir Shamanov and Major-General Yakov Nedobitko. No investigation or prosecution appears to have been conducted with respect to Colonel-General Alexander Baranov despite serious findings made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in its judgement in the case of Bazorkina v. Russia (2006). Furthermore, the granting of amnesties to those responsible for the disappearances and torture of civilians in Chechnya continues to undermine belief in the Russian system of justice (see note on the Lapin Case in this report). According to Nils Muižnieks, former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, impunity for serious human rights violations in the North Caucasus has a corrosive effect upon the very foundations of the society. “States should adopt a policy of zero-tolerance of such violations and should publicly condemn them. The state also has an obligation to combat impunity through a series of specific measures, including the development of laws, policies and action plans, as well as taking practical measures aimed at preventing and combating institutionalised practices by the authorities which may result in impunity.”1 The NEDC therefore requests that Russian authorities improve judicial institutions by attaching significance to these and similar cases and ensuring that the deliverance of justice in such cases becomes a reality. Part One of the report presents the current status of the investigation and prosecution of 28 emblematic cases. The text is based on documentation provided by a range of the NEDC founding organizations and information donors. These cases of killings, abductions, disappearances and torture were selected by the Council of Europe Rapporteur on North Caucasus by virtue of “the status of the victims – journalists, well-known human rights activists or emblematic political figures – cases in which 1 Third Party Intervention by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights under Article 36 of the European
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