ECtHR recognizes violation of rights of a rape victim in Dagestan

The Strasbourg Court has supported a minor girl from Dagestan, who complained about the ineffective investigation into the case on her repeated gang rape.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 26, 2012, Magomednabi Nazhmutdinov, a resident of Dagestan, filed a complaint to the ROVD (District Interior Division) for the Karabudakhkent District about a gang rape of his minor daughter. Later, the man complained that investigators had refused to institute a criminal case. For several years, the man had been filing complaints about the inaction of the investigators and threats from relatives of the suspects.

Magomednabi Nazhmutdinov told the "Caucasian Knot" that in October 2010, a resident of Karabudakhkent persuaded his minor daughter to have sexual intercourse. "Then the man told about that to his friend, and the latter used blackmail to force my daughter to have sexual intercourse with him. For two years, different people (and, according to my daughter, there were eleven of them) blackmailed the girl and forced her to have sex with them," the father said. He did not learn about the rape and blackmail of his daughter until the summer of 2012, when the daughter told him everything. "She took several packs of sleeping pills. Doctors managed to save her life. On the same day, I filed a complaint to the police," said Magomednabi Nazhmutdinov.

On November 20, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) pronounced the decision in favour of the Magomednabi Nazhmutdinov's daughter and recognized the violation of her rights under Article 3 (prohibition of torture) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The court decision has been published on the ECtHR's website.

The ECtHR examined the circumstances of the case and concluded that the investigation into the criminal case on the gang rape instituted at the complaint filed by the minor girl and her father had been ineffective.

The minor girl was awarded the compensation for moral damage in the amount of 18,000 euros and the compensation for legal costs in the amount of 12,585 euros.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 20, 2018 at 09:08 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.