I correctly predicted that there was a violation of human rights in YEVLOYEVA AND TOMOVA v. RUSSIA.

Information

• Judgment date: 2018-05-03
• Communication date: 2016-09-23
• Application number(s): 14667/09
• Country:   RUS
• Relevant ECHR article(s): 2, 2-1, 3, 5, 5-1, 13
• Conclusion:
  Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Civil proceedings
  Article 6-1 - Reasonable time)
  Violation of Article 13+6-1 - Right to an effective remedy (Article 13 - Effective remedy) (Article 6 - Right to a fair trial
  Civil proceedings
  Article 6-1 - Reasonable time)
• Result: Violation
SEE FINAL JUDGMENT

JURI Prediction

• Probability: 0.812101
• Prediction: Violation

• Consistent

Communication text used for prediction

The applicants are Ms Lida Yevloyeva (“the first applicant”) and Ms Roza Tomova (“the second applicant”), who respectively were born in 1951 and 1964 and live in Ekazhevo and Nazran, Ingushetia.
They are represented before the Court by Stichting Russian Justice Initiative, an NGO based in the Netherlands with representative offices in Moscow and Ingushetia.
The first applicant is the mother of Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev, who was born in 1976.
The second applicant is the sister of Mr Ibragim Izmaylov, who was born in 1976.
The circumstances of the case The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
1.
Abduction of Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev and Mr Ibragim Izmaylov At about 10 p.m. on 11 March 2004 Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev and Mr Ibragim Izmaylov were driving in their white VAZ 2107 car on the motorway from the direction of the town of Malgobek towards the Volga‐14 stationary traffic checkpoint located at the intersection of the Malgobek‐Mayskoye and Nazran-Kantyshevo motorways in Ingushetia (also known as the Kantyshevkiy intersection).
When they reached the checkpoint, a dark‐grey metallic (цвет «мокрый асфальт») VAZ 21099 car without registration numbers overtook them at high speed and blocked the road.
At the same time a white Niva car without registration numbers approached them from behind and bumped into their car’s rear end.
Ten armed men in camouflage uniforms and balaclavas jumped out of the two cars, surrounded Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev and Mr Ibragim Izmaylov and opened fire; the armed men then handcuffed them, forced them into their vehicles and drove off in the direction of Nazran.
A police officer on duty at the traffic checkpoint (Mr A.A.) tried to intervene; however, one of the men ordered him to stay away, waving a service identification card.
Speaking unaccented Russian, the man told him that he was from the Magas department of the Federal Security Service in Ingushetia (Федеральная Служба Безопасности) (hereinafter the “FSS”).
According to information obtained by the applicants from unidentified sources, on the same date (11 March 2004) Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev and Mr Ibragim Izmaylov were taken to the FSS headquarters in Magas.
The brother of Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev, Mr Kh.Y., went there straight away and saw a Niva car parked on the FSS premises.
The car had physical damage to its body indicating that it had been in a collision with a white-coloured vehicle.
It is unclear whether the applicants submitted this information to the investigators.
The whereabouts of Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev and Mr Ibragim Izmaylov have remained unknown ever since.
2.
Official investigation into the abduction On 15 March 2004 the first applicant informed the authorities of the abduction and asked for assistance in the search for her son.
On 17 March 2004 the Nazran district prosecutor’s office in Ingushetia (прокуратура Назрановского района Республики Ингушетия) opened criminal case no.
04500010 under Article 126 of the Criminal Code (abduction).
On 18 and 20 March 2004 the investigators questioned police officer Mr A.A. and his colleagues, lieutenant M.D.
and sergeant I.I., who had also been on duty at the traffic checkpoint and had witnessed the event.
Their submission regarding the circumstances of the abduction was similar to the account that the applicants submitted to the Court.
On 17 November 2004 the first applicant was granted victim status in the case.
On 17 December 2004 the investigation in respect of the case was suspended for failure to identify the perpetrators.
This decision was quashed by the supervising authorities and on 1 April 2005 the investigation was resumed.
It was again suspended on 1 March 2005, resumed on 29 March 2005 and suspended on 31 December 2006.
On numerous occasions between 2004 and 2009 the applicants complained to various state officials and law-enforcement agencies about the abduction and asked for assistance in the search for their relatives.
In reply they received letters stating either that law-enforcement agencies had not been involved in the abduction of their relatives or that operational search activities were still in progress in order to establish their whereabouts.
It appears that the investigation is still pending.
COMPLAINTS Relying on Article 2 of the Convention, the applicants complain of a violation of the right to life of Mr Rasukhan Yevloyev and Mr Ibragim Izmaylov and submit that the circumstances of their abduction indicate that the perpetrators were State agents.
The applicants further complain that no effective investigation into the matter has been conducted.
The applicants complain, invoking Article 3 of the Convention, that they are suffering severe mental distress on account of the indifference demonstrated by the authorities in respect of the abduction and subsequent disappearance of their close relatives and the State’s failure to conduct an effective investigation into the incident.
The applicants submit that the unacknowledged detention of their relatives violates all the guarantees under Article 5 of the Convention.
The applicants complain under Article 13 of the Convention of the lack of an effective remedy in respect of their complaint under Article 2 of the Convention.