EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
FIRST SECTION
CASE OF SAMBIYEV AND POKAYEVA v. RUSSIA
(Application No. 38693/04)
JUDGMENT <*>
(Strasbourg, 22.I.2009)
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<*> 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 Sambiyev and Pokayeva v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
Christos Rozakis, President,
Nina {Vajic} <*>,
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<*> Здесь и далее по тексту слова на национальном языке набраны латинским шрифтом и выделены фигурными скобками.
Anatoly Kovler,
Elisabeth Steiner,
Khanlar Hajiyev,
Giorgio Malinverni,
George Nicolaou, judges,
and {Andre} Wampach, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 16 December 2008,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on the last-mentioned date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (No. 38693/04) 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 two Russian nationals, Mr Sharpudin Saydkhasanovich Sambiyev and Mrs Rukiyat Supyanovna Pokayeva ("the applicants"), on 8 October 2004.
2. The applicants were 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 Ms V. Milinchuk, the former Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights and subsequently by their new representative, Mr G. Matyushkin.
3. On 21 January 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 FACTS
I. The circumstances of the case
4. The applicants were born in 1955 and 1958 respectively. They live in Stariye Atagi, the Chechen Republic. They are the parents of Mr Anzor Sambiyev (also known as Anzor Pokayev), born in 1980.
A. Death of Mr Anzor Sambiyev
1. The applicants' account
5. According to the applicants, after the disappearance of their other son, Mr Amir Pokayev, in March 2002 (see Arzu Akhmadova and Others v. Russia, No. 13670/03), the second applicant sent Mr Anzor Sambiyev to live with her sister in Nazran where she believed him to be safe. Servicemen often enquired after his whereabouts and asked for his photographs, although they never explained why. The second applicant never told them where he was and removed all his photographs.
6. On 8 April 2004 Mr Anzor Sambiyev came to Stariye Atagi to visit his family.
7. On 10 April 2004 at approximately 9 p.m. the second applicant and Mr Anzor Sambiyev were at home. Suddenly armed servicemen of federal troops wearing camouflage uniform rushed into the yard of the house. There were about fifty servicemen who had arrived in armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and a "Ural" vehicle. Some of them surrounded the house. The second applicant told Mr Anzor Sambiyev to jump out of the window into the garden. After he did, she went to the yard and asked the servicemen what was wrong and what they were looking for. They told her to step out of the house. Whe
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