EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
FIRST SECTION
CASE OF MUTAYEVA v. RUSSIA
(Application No. 43418/06)
JUDGMENT <*>
(Strasbourg, 22.IV.2010)
--------------------------------
<*> This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.
In the case of Mutayeva v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
Christos Rozakis, President,
Anatoly Kovler,
Elisabeth Steiner,
Dean Spielmann,
Sverre Erik Jebens,
Giorgio Malinverni,
George Nicolaou, judges,
and {Soren} <*> Nielsen, Section Registrar,
--------------------------------
<*> Здесь и далее по тексту слова на национальном языке набраны латинским шрифтом и выделены фигурными скобками.
Having deliberated in private on 25 March 2010,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (No. 43418/06) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention") by Ms Savdat Mutayeva, a Russian national, ("the applicant"), on 18 October 2006.
2. The applicant was represented by lawyers of the Stichting Russian Justice Initiative ("SRJI"), an NGO based in the Netherlands with a representative office in Russia. The Russian Government ("the Government") were represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.
3. On 19 June 2008 the Court decided to apply Rule 41 of the Rules of Court and to grant priority treatment to the application and to give notice of the application to the Government. Under the provisions of Article 29 § 3 of the Convention, it decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility. The President of the Chamber acceded to the Government's request not to make publicly accessible the documents from the criminal investigation file deposited with the Registry in connection with the application (Rule 33 of the Rules of Court).
4. The Government objected to the joint examination of the admissibility and merits of the application and to the application of Rule 41 of the Rules of Court. Having considered the Government's objection, the Court dismissed it.
THE FACTS
I. The circumstances of the case
5. The applicant was born in 1948. She lives in the village of Assinovskaya, in the Chechen Republic. The applicant is the mother of Luiza Mutayeva, born in 1984.
A. Disappearance of Luiza Mutayeva
1. The applicant's account
6. The applicant, with her husband and two daughters, Luiza and Madina, lived at 60 Bershchanskaya Street in the village of Assinovskaya, in the Achkhoy-Martanovskiy district (in the submitted documents the district is also referred to as Sunzhenskiy district), in the Chechen Republic. Their house was located near a local hospital. At the material time the village was under the firm control of the federal forces, which maintained manned checkpoints at the entry and exit points to and from the village.
7. In the night of 19 January 2004 (in the submitted documents the date is also referred to as 9 January 2004) the family was sleeping in their house at the above address.
8. At about 2.30 a.m. on 19 January 2004 the applicant and her family members were woken up by someone knocking at the entrance door. The applicant approached the door and asked
> 1 2 3 ... 17 18 19