17:49, 5 October 2020

ECtHR requests Russian authorities to answer questions on torture of Ruslan Kutaev

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Photo: REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

The European Court of Human Rights has announced that the Russian authorities should provide the information concerning whether Ruslan Kutaev, the president of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, was tortured after his detention in 2014 and whether the criminal proceedings against him were politically motivated.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is ready to agree with the opinion of human rights defenders who stated that the criminal proceedings against Ruslan Kutaev were politically motivated, says Dmitry Piskunov, the director of the North-Caucasian branch of the Committee against Torture (CaT).

Let us remind you that in July 2014, Ruslan Kutaev was sentenced to four years of imprisonment on the charge of drug possession. He pleaded not guilty and complained about torture. The human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" associated the criminal prosecution of Ruslan Kutaev with his speech delivered at a conference on the deportation of the Chechen people, in which Ruslan Kutaev criticized Ramzan Kadyrov's ban on holding on February 23 the events in commemoration of the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people. On December 20, 2017, Ruslan Kutaev was released from the penal colony.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 5, 2020 at 01:50 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.