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Musa Temergeriyev | 140. The fourteenth applicant was questioned on 28 May 2003, 17 December 2004 and 14 April 2007. She made similar submissions to those of the seventh and ninth applicants, recalling that the intruders had Slavic features and had worn uniforms with chevrons of the Ministry of the Interior. She added that a large number of other military vehicles had been parked in the vicinity of their house on the day of the abduction. When the APCs with |
P. V. Molotchko | 63. On 28 July 2011 the Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine issued a decision refusing the request for the applicant’s extradition. In particular, it was noted that according to the outcome of the extradition inquiry there were no grounds preventing the applicant’s extradition under the Minsk Convention. However, the Deputy Prosecutor General further noted that:
“...
According to the conclusions of [the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe], the Council of Europe, the European Union, and of a number of international organisations, the human rights situation in Belarus has significantly worsened since the December 2010 presidential election [in that country].
In these circumstances, it was not possible to exclude a risk of violation of the rights of |
Anna Politkovskaja | 15. On appeal to the Migration Court (Migrationsdomstolen), the applicants were heard on 17 June 2009 in the presence of an interpreter and their legal counsel. The first applicant had stated that he had heard about |
Abubakar Bantayev | 49. According to the Government, the investigators also requested information from various law enforcement agencies in Chechnya concerning the disappearance of the Bantayev brothers. The Temporary Operational Troops of the Ministry of the Interior in Chechnya (временная оперативная группировка МВД РФ в Чечне), the Chechnya FSB and the Northern-Caucasus Operational Headquarters of Ministry of the Interior (Северокавказское оперативное управление МВД РФ) and other agencies submitted that they had no information concerning the whereabouts of the Bantayev brothers. Law enforcement agencies in Chechnya informed the investigators that their agents had not detained |
Rustam Isigov | 66. The decision further referred to the statements of four residents of Sernovodsk, including Apti Isigov's cousin Rustam Isigov (who had been detained on 2 July 2001), all of whom had stated that they had seen the applicants' two relatives delivered to the passport checkpoint on the outskirts of Sernovodsk. The first applicant and |
Magomed Umarov | 62. On 24 June 2005 the investigating authorities questioned T. M., the applicant’s neighbour. She submitted that at approximately 4 a. m. she had heard the sound of engines and had gone outside. Near 148 Klyuchevaya Street she had seen servicemen in camouflage uniform and had returned home. Later she had learnt that the servicemen had taken |
Murad Gelayev | 78. On 10 August 2009 the investigators questioned Mr Sh.Ts., who confirmed his previous statements (see paragraph 63 above) and added that after the abduction, in the basement of the Oktyabrskiy VOVD, he had seen |
Domingos Martins | 7. On 17 December 2008 the Portuguese-language newspaper Contacto Semanário (hereafter “Contacto”), published by the applicant company in Luxembourg, printed an article describing the situation of families who had lost custody of their children. The Central Social Welfare Department (SCAS) had allegedly instigated the withdrawal of custody in the cases concerned. The journalist reported on the case of two teenagers and the social worker dealing with their case, providing names. The teenage girl had reportedly suffered attempted rape and the teenage boy had allegedly burnt a friend with a cigarette. The article had been signed “ |
Ahmet Altun | 14. In February 1994, the applicant went to the Kulp Magistrate’s Court together with Ahmet Altun and Mustafa Aldemir to lodge a petition about the burning of his house. All three of them submitted handwritten petitions to the judge and requested him to conduct a visit to the village to establish the damage they had suffered. The judge however refused their request for security reasons. The same day, the applicant and the two other villagers were called to the public prosecutor’s office in Kulp, where they were interrogated about their complaints. The public prosecutor took their statements and typed down their complaints. The applicant, |
the Minister of State | 22. The third document was a study entitled “Compulsory classes in religious culture and ethics: between pluralist ‘supra-denominationalism’ and majority confessionalism”. It was prepared in January 2013 by A. Yaman, professor at Abant İzzet Baysal University and Chair of Political History, who is also an Alevi leader, more specifically a dede (religious and spiritual leader). The parts of relevance to the present case read as follows:
“...The syllabus for the compulsory classes poses the greatest difficulties for Alevis, as the course content and the training given to the teachers are not compatible with the Alevi approach. The teaching is dispensed by staff whose background is in Sunni beliefs and culture and who are graduates of the imam-hatip (imam and preacher) schools or the faculties of theology, where they follow a curriculum [in line with Sunni beliefs and culture]. Such an arrangement may be regarded as suited to the needs of Sunni citizens ... but it can hardly be acceptable for the same syllabus to be taught to Alevis. It is clear from recent developments that the argument that the course content is ‘supra-denominational’ is false. In that connection, why is it that the textbooks which in 2005 were supposedly ‘supra-denominational’ were amended in 2008 and 2011, with passages on the Alevis being added following the meetings? One particular – and admittedly perfectly respectable – school of religious thought predominates in this course, and the Alevi faith is not adequately represented. Alevi children are caught in a stranglehold between the information they receive at school and that which is handed down by their families. Furthermore, problems arise with certain teachers ...
...
Taking into account the proposals made by the commission [responsible for revising the content of the syllabus] which was set up following the workshops on Alevi issues (Alevi calıştayları) – and some of whose meetings I myself attended – a collection of the proposed amendments to the textbooks was sent to |
Ümit Altıntaş | 37. During the first ten minutes of the raid on dormitory no. 4, prisoners Halil Türker and Abuzer Çat (relatives of the applicants Selame Türker and Hasan and Hüseyin Çat) were killed; their bodies were found in the dormitory no. 4 living area. |
Jarsosław Kość | 12. On 31 May 2011 the Regional Court decided that the applicant had violated Z.M.’s personal rights and ordered that he send a statement by post to the district mayor, the Tomaszów Mazowiecki Commune Office (Urząd Gminy w Tomaszowie Mazowieckim) and Z.M. stating:
“I, |
Saydi Malsagov | 15. The applicants submitted a statement by their neighbour Ms Sh. On 7 November 2002 at about 3 a.m. she heard the dogs barking and looked out of the window at the street. She saw a line of armed people walking in the street from the Malsagovs’ house towards Magomed-Merzoyeva Street. There were about ten of them, wearing camouflage uniforms and masks. Then everything went quiet. In the morning the witness learnt that the military had taken |
Kazbek Vakhayev | 54. On 11 October and on 10 November 2006 Kheda Aydamirova, the wife of Kazbek Vakhayev, was questioned. She confirmed her previous statements and identified, on the basis of the video footage, one of the bodies found near the village of Goy-Chu as |
Ilias Sagayev | 33. On 7 April 2004 S., an official from the Urus-Martan Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the Chechen Republic, sent the first applicant a letter informing him that inquiries concerning the whereabouts of his son had been sent to the Departments responsible for the Execution of Sentences of the Chechen Republic and of other regions of the Northern Caucasus and to the Main Information Centre of the Ministry of the Interior in Moscow. A profile of Mr |
Timur Khambulatov | 39. On 23 March 2004 the investigators questioned Mr A.B., an officer of the Naurskiy OVD, who stated that at about 8.15 a. m. on 18 March 2004 he had arrived at work and had seen in his office his colleague Mr V.T., who was writing down the statement given by |
Igbal Agazade | 99. The same issue of the newspaper contained a declaration by the Head of the Sabail District Police Office, denouncing the opposition. The following was stated:
“On 15 and 16 October 2003 certain riotous anarchist and extreme reactionary groups, following direct orders by Isa Gambar, |
Hilal Mammadov | 50. It appears from the applicant’s observations submitted to the Court in reply to the Government’s observations that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (“the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention”) delivered its opinion no. 59/2013 concerning the applicant’s pre-trial detention on 22 November 2013. The relevant part of the opinion reads as follows:
“2. The Working Group regards deprivation of liberty as arbitrary in the following cases:
(a) When it is clearly impossible to invoke any legal basis justifying the deprivation of liberty (as when a person is kept in detention after the completion of his or her sentence or despite an amnesty law applicable to the detainee) (category I);
(b) When the deprivation of liberty results from the exercise of the rights or freedoms guaranteed by articles 7, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, insofar as States parties are concerned, by articles 12, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (category II);
(c) When the total or partial non-observance of the international norms relating to the right to a fair trial, established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the relevant international instruments accepted by the States concerned, is of such gravity as to give the deprivation of liberty an arbitrary character (category III);
(d) When asylum seekers, immigrants or refugees are subjected to prolonged administrative custody without the possibility of administrative or judicial review or remedy (category IV);
(e) When the deprivation of liberty constitutes a violation of international law for reasons of discrimination based on birth; national, ethnic or social origin; language; religion; economic condition; political or other opinion; gender; sexual orientation; or disability or other status, and which aims towards or can result in ignoring the equality of human rights (category V).
Submissions
Communication from the source 4. |
the Governor of the SIZO | 55. On 1 October 2004 the Zhovtnevy Court, acting on a complaint lodged by the applicant’s lawyer, quashed that decision and ordered further investigations, pointing out the following irregularities:
- failure to take account of the submissions of the applicant’s mother concerning the applicant’s state of health in July-August 2002;
- failure to measure the lawfulness and reasonableness of the guards’ conduct against the legal principle prohibiting degrading treatment;
- failure to determine whether the applicant’s misbehaviour constituted a breach of prison rules that warranted his placement in a disciplinary cell;
- failure to consider the proportionality of the force used;
- the fact that the investigation was conducted by |
Neslihan Yargıcı | 15. The court held, in particular:
“The defendant, Müslüm Gündüz, took part in his capacity as the leader of the Aczmendis in a television programme, Ceviz Kabuğu, broadcast live on the independent channel HBB. The purpose of the programme was to give a presentation of the community, whose followers had attracted public attention on account of the black robes they wore, the sticks they carried and their manner of chanting. Those taking part included the stylist |
Hüseyin Arabacı | 9. On 7 September 1998 the applicant’s brother was posted to sentry duty. At about 12.30 p.m. he was seriously wounded by one bullet and he was immediately taken to the Çanakkale Military Hospital, where he was operated upon. At 5 p.m. the same day, |
Khamzat Isayev | 65. On 12 June 2004 the Russian military carried out a sweeping operation in the village of Goy-Chu. T.I. and the second applicant were seized and taken to a military base where the servicemen questioned them about ball bearings found in their house. Timur and |
Grigolashvili | 27. In December 2000 Mr Tsartsidze transmitted to the investigative authorities two audiotapes, alleging that they contained a recording of a conversation between him and Mr Grigolashvili, made without the latter’s knowledge, on 19 September 2000. The conversation concerned the events of 7 and 8 August 2000. During the conversation Mr |
Vasileios Tsalkitzis | 12. Before the three-member panel of the Athens Court of Appeal (“the Court of Appeal”), the applicant submitted that his trial for slander should have been suspended pursuant to Article 366 § 2 of the Criminal Code or, in any event, that it should have been adjourned in respect of all the charges, pursuant to Article 59 § 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. At a hearing on 25 May 2009 the Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s application to suspend or adjourn the trial and proceeded to examine C.T.’s criminal complaint. In particular, it held the following:
“... Following this, the party who had filed the criminal complaint, |
Yane Sandanski | 49. On 30 March 2006 the second applicant and two other members of Ilinden notified the Mayor of Sandanski that the organisation intended to stage a rally between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on 23 April 2006 at the grave of |
Georgia Andreou | 19. The first certificate, issued on 3 September 2008 by Dr K. Papakiriakou, director of the surgical department of Larnaca General Hospital, reads as follows:
“Based on the hospital's medical records of |
Movsar Tagirov | 44. Law enforcement agencies of the Chechen Republic and the North Caucasus Area replied to the district prosecutor's office's queries that Movsar Tagirov had not been arrested, that no criminal proceeding had been instituted against him and that he had not been suspected of participation in illegal armed groups. |
Alparslan Altan | 33. An anonymous witness referred to as “Defne” made several statements to the Kahramanmaras and Ankara public prosecutors’ offices.
In her statements of 4 August 2016 the witness said the following:
“... I was appointed as a rapporteur at the Constitutional Court. While I was working at the Constitutional Court, we kept seeing friends who belonged to this structure [the FETÖ/PDY organisation] ... There, I noticed that certain files were monitored ... Some practices came to my notice; for instance, applications relating to the election threshold and the funding of political parties ... were monitored by the rapporteurs and members [of the Constitutional Court] belonging to the FETÖ/PDY organisation. After such applications were lodged, [these rapporteurs and members of the Constitutional Court] started to keep track of the cases by enquiring about their outcome. The ones monitoring these cases were |
José Eduardo do Santos | 17. Asked to describe his departure from the DRC, the applicant stated that he had left Kinshasa by boat to go to the airport in Brazzaville (the Republic of Congo) on 17 May 1997. At the end of June 1997 he had continued by train to Point Noir and from there by boat to Cabinda in Angola. There he had been staying for three months in order to acquire an Angolan identity card; he had been living in a house owned by a local. He had then travelled to Luanda by plane; he had run into some difficulties as he had not been speaking Portuguese; he had been arrested but had been allowed to continue his journey after he had paid some money. He had stayed in Luanda in the Petragol neighbourhood for one month, following which he had been detained in the Viana prison for three months (in October 1997), the authorities having taken him for a soldier in Mobutu’s forces as he had been unable to speak Portuguese. During his detention a rifle had been used to hit him in the shoulder and he had been forced to dig graves. In 1998 he had been transferred to an army prison in Bengela, where he had spent a further five months. Prisoners had been forced to take part in armed fighting but the applicant had managed to avoid this due to his injured and infected shoulder. The fighting had occurred at the diamond mines where Angolan rebels (the Savimbi guerrilla) had been fighting President |
Tofiq Yaqublu | 133. The court then noted that the statements of ten police officers, including five of the six alleged victims of crime (see paragraphs 47-48 above) and witnesses R.N., I.M. and R.B. (see paragraphs 52-56 above) indicated that between about 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on 24 January 2013 there was mass disorder in front of the building of the Regional Education Department and that the applicant and |
Elbek Tashukhadzhiyev | 52. On an unspecified date the investigators questioned the applicant and his wife, who stated that in 1998 they had learnt from a Mr A.Kh., who had been released from a detention centre, that their son |
Tomislav Remetin | 45. On the same date, the State Attorney’s Office indicted G.M. and M.T. in the Dubrovnik Municipal Court (Općinski sud u Dubrovniku) on charges of violent behaviour. The relevant part of the indictment reads:
“... on 19 December 2010, at around 3.00 a.m., in Dubrovnik, in bar C., based on a previous agreement, for no particular reason and in order to act violently, together with other unidentified persons, G.M. approached |
Gotse Delchev’s | 101. A number of members and supporters of Ilinden gathered in front of the American University in Blagoevgrad at about 4.40 p.m. on 12 September 2008. They carried two posters saying “UMO Ilinden” and “12 September – Day of the Genocide of the Macedonians of Bulgaria”. Several uniformed and plain-clothes police officers appeared on the scene ten minutes later. One officer told the participants that if they carried posters “which are against Bulgaria” the posters would be taken away. After that the police seized the second poster. The participants in the rally then headed towards Macedonia Square. On the way there, two men threatened one of the participants in the rally, saying “we will now fine you 200 [Bulgarian] levs each, I know your sons, we will fire them from work ...”. In Macedonia Square the members of Ilinden stood in front of |
Mubilanzila Tabitha | 29. In a letter of 15 October 2002, the Aliens Office advised Crown Counsel of its views on the application for the second applicant’s release:
“... the enquiries have enabled the person concerned’s family to be located in Kinshasa. In view of the positive results of the enquiries as a whole, a flight has already been arranged for Thursday 17 October 2002. The child will be met at Kinshasa by her family. A representative from our embassy will also be present. Lastly, we would note that the sole responsibility for the length of the applicant’s detention lies with her uncle, who has been uncooperative and has studiously avoided giving the Aliens Office the family’s address. Accordingly, in the child’s own interest, she should remain in detention until Thursday 17 October 2002, when she can be returned to her own family in Kinshasa.”
On the same day, after receiving confirmation from the Aliens Office that the child was to be removed, the Belgian embassy official in Kinshasa informed B. in the following letter, which was sent by recorded delivery:
“Dear Sir,
I wish to confirm the message which the embassy has received from the Department in Brussels, namely, the return of your niece |
Musa Ilyasov's | 40. By letters of 4 and 12 August 2003 the republican prosecutor's office replied to the first applicant's enquiries and informed her that her complaints had been appended to the criminal case file no. 59232 and that operational measures aimed at establishing |
Arbi Isiyev | 77. Around 1 p.m. on 29 September 2004 Mr Arbi Isiyev left his home in Argun to visit his aunt, who lived in the same town. When Mr Arbi Isiyev was walking down Gudermesskaya Street, several service personnel in camouflage uniforms and balaclavas forced him into a white GAZ-3110 car and took him to an unknown destination. Mr |
Galip Mendi | 120. The witness took the applicant's statement on the evening of 7 July, after she had returned from Turkey. The applicant expressed her opinion that the killing of her husband was connected to the articles he had written about the St Barnabas incident. According to the applicant, the head of the Civil Defence Organisation, Mr |
Nikolayev A.A. | 17. On 25 April 2016 the City Court quashed the judgment of 23 November 2015 and ordered the applicant’s eviction from the flat. The City Court held as follows:
“...
The owner of the flat in question, Mr |
Akhmed Buzurtanov | 42. On various dates in December 2012 the investigators received replies from the mobile telephone companies, according to which between 2008 and 2012 multiple mobile telephone numbers had been registered in the name of Mr |
A. Mutsayev | 350. On 16 December 2011 the applicant stated that her son had fought against the Russian federal forces during the first Chechen war and had left Chechnya at the end of the war. In January 2004 he had returned and on 24 February 2004 he had gone to Grozny to visit his friend, |
Milan Trifković | 48. On 16 November 2007, after the applicant had been indicted in the Split County Court, a three-judge panel of that court extended the applicant’s detention, again under Article 102 § 1(3) and (4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (risk of reoffending and gravity of charges). The relevant part of the decision reads:
“The criminal record ... shows that the accused ... |
Maskhud Makhloyev | 56. On 10 August 2010 the investigator in charge of the case suspended the preliminary investigation for failure to establish the identity of the alleged perpetrators. It was stressed that the investigation had followed two possible versions of the incident in question: that the reason for abduction could had been a blood feud or hostility towards |
Saidkhasan Dangayev’s | 37. On 6 February 2004 the district prosecutor’s office quashed the decision to suspend the investigation and reopened the criminal proceedings. The decision stated, inter alia:
“...[the investigators] failed to question witnesses Mrs L.B., Mr R.G., who was born in 1964, Mr I.Sh. and Mr S.V...
It is necessary [for the investigators] to identify and question the persons who saw the car and armoured vehicles used by the unidentified persons who arrived at |
Luiza Mutayeva | 10. Having searched the house, the servicemen ordered the applicant's daughters, Luiza and Madina, to put on warm clothing as they were being taken to the vehicles for questioning. The applicant's younger daughter, fifteen-year old Madina, started crying. One of the masked servicemen told her: “Do not be afraid; we will just question you and will let you go. I promise that nothing will happen to you.” Before leaving the house, |
Ahmet Altun | 27. The witness, who is the applicant’s wife, was in the village of Akdoruk at the time of the incident. She explained that after her husband had gone to the fields early in the morning, a large number of soldiers arrived in the village on foot. The soldiers had a list in their hands and they read out the names of certain villagers, including the applicant’s. Thereafter, they threw a sort of flammable material towards their house and the stable which caught alight. She tried to save the animals but was stopped by the soldiers. She believed that the soldiers had burned down the houses because the villagers had refused to become village guards. The witness further stated that |
Maskhud Makhloyev | 11. The applicant submitted that law-enforcement agents had searched his house again on 31 October 2008 and 5 January 2009. On the first occasion they had looked for weapons but had not found anything. On the second occasion, the search had been conducted at 3 a.m. and the applicant and his family had been requested to present their passports. Mr |
Ümit Şenocak | 188. He did not recall ever being contacted by any prosecutor asking about the disappearance of the Orhans and he denied any knowledge of any investigation despite being shown the letter of 9 May 1997 from the Kulp District Governor to the Provincial Governor (see paragraph 84 above). He did not recall |
Naomi Campbell | 12. The newspaper responded with further articles.
On 5 February 2001 the newspaper published an article headed, in large letters, “Pathetic”. Below was a photograph of Ms Campbell over the caption “Help: Naomi leaves Narcotics Anonymous meeting last week after receiving therapy in her battle against illegal drugs”. This photograph was similar to the street scene picture published on 1 February. The text of the article was headed “After years of self-publicity and illegal drug abuse, |
William A. Schabas | 47. Amongst scholars, the majority have taken the view that ethnic cleansing, in the way in which it was carried out by the Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to expel Muslims and Croats from their homes, did not constitute genocide (see, amongst many others, |
Umar Ozdamirov | 141. On 29 September 2004 the investigators questioned Mr B.V., an eyewitness to the abduction. He said that the abductors had been armed with automatic firearms and had been wearing camouflage uniforms. They had arrived in one white GAZelle minivan, one beige VAZ 2106 car and three camouflaged UAZ vehicles. They had seized Mr |
Nurettin Kılıçaslan | 8. On the same day the applicants were examined by a doctor at the Forensic Medicine Institute who noted the following marks on their bodies:
–Durmuş Kurt: one yellow and one green lesion of 2 x 2 cm on the right shoulder, a lesion of 3 x 0,5 cm on the inner part of the upper arm. The doctor certified him unfit for work for three days.
– |
George Tenet | 62. On 6 December 2005 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a claim on behalf of the applicant in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against a number of defendants, including the former CIA Director |
Salman Abdulazizov | 11. At about 1 a.m. on 12 February 2001 Mr I. was sleeping at his home. Around twenty-five masked men in camouflage uniforms armed with sniper rifles entered his courtyard; seven of them proceeded to his house. The armed men spoke Russian without accent. They ordered Mr I. to get dressed and took him outside. The armed men searched and handcuffed Mr I. Some ten minutes later a Ural vehicle and two UAZ vehicles arrived. The armed men covered Mr I.’s eyes with a cap and then fastened it with adhesive tape. However, Mr I. could see a little through holes. The armed men were putting Mr I. inside the Ural vehicle when he saw |
Madina Tausovna Tagirova | 6. The applicants are:
1) Ms Zaynap Zhazhayevna Tagirova, born in 1950;
2) Mr Taus Daudovich Tagirov, born in 1950;
3) Mr Musa Tausovich Tagirov, born in 1982;
4) Ms Zarema Abdullayevna Bazayeva[1], born in 1983;
5) Ms |
Murad Gelayev | 53. On 12 August 2005 the investigators questioned Mr Sup.S. who stated that on 27 February 2000 he and fourteen other residents of Gikalo had been taken to the Oktyabrskiy district military commander's office, then to Khankala, then to the SIZO (the detention centre) in Chernokozovo where he had been detained until 19 May 2000. According to the witness, his brother Mr Sul.S. and |
Blagoja Ćosić | 9. After the extensive information campaign explaining the available options for the settlement of the Republika Srpska’s public debt (including its debt arising from domestic judgments), between 26 April 2007 and 13 May 2011 some of the applicants informed the authorities that they agreed to be paid only the legal costs in cash and the principal debt and default interest in bonds. Government bonds were then issued on the following dates to the following applicants:
(i) on 15 December 2008 to Mr |
Apti Elmurzayev's | 19. On 22 August 2002 the head of the administration of the Urus-Martan District informed the second applicant that the district prosecutor's office had opened an investigation of the kidnapping of her son, and that all possible steps were being taken to establish |
Yahya Kezer | 6. On 2 June 1995 Nedim Öndeş, Arap Doğan, Ferhan Özçelik and Selhan Tekin were arrested and taken into custody by the Anti-Terror branch of the İzmir Security Directorate on suspicion of aiding and abetting an illegal organisation. On 6 June 1995 |
Akhmed Rezvanov's | 16. By decision of 16 January 2003 the district prosecutor's office admitted the first applicant as a victim to the criminal proceedings in case no. 34003 instituted on 31 January 2003 in relation to |
Hadžihasanović | 6. It would appear from the case file that the salient fact in the domestic proceedings was the applicant’s association with the mujahedin in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“BH”)[1]. The term mujahedin has been widely used to refer to foreigners – mainly from the Arab world – who came to BH during the war in support of Bosnian Muslims[2]. However, the same term has been used to describe local Muslims who joined the foreign mujahedin, endorsed their ideology and adjusted to their way of dressing. The phenomenon has been explained by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) in |
Shamil Said-Khasanovich Akhmadov | 48. The Government also submitted to the Court a decision dated 10 May 2004 to open a new criminal investigation file no. 34/00/016-04 against persons unknown for the kidnapping of Mr Akhmadov. This file had become separated from the investigation file no. no. 34/00/0010-04. The order of the military prosecutor of the UGA summarised the information and documents from criminal investigation file no. 34/00/0010-04 in the following manner:
“On 12 March 2001 in Argun, Chechnya, unknown persons detained Mr. |
L. Hellblom Sjögren | 53. The first and second applicants appealed against the decision, stating that the Social Council's decision lacked reasoning, and maintaining that there had never existed any grounds on which to take the children into public care. They submitted a report, dated 5 June 2003, by a psychologist, Dr |
Said-Selim Kanayev | 12. The first applicant is the mother of Mr Aslan Akhmadov, born in 1979, who was a student at Grozny University. They and other relatives lived at 261 Nuradilova Street and were neighbours of the second applicant, who resided with her nephew, Mr |
Idris Abdulazimov | 22. On 2 June 2002 the sixth applicant, her daughter Louiza and three sons, Akhmad, Vakhid and Idris, were sleeping at their home. At about 6 a.m. an APC stopped at their house and a group of about 30 military servicemen surrounded the house, about half of them wearing masks. The applicant described them as heavily armed, wearing new camouflage uniforms and speaking unaccented Russian. Approximately ten servicemen entered the house, shouting and swearing. They pulled the sixth applicant's three sons onto the floor and asked their names. They then told Idris to dress. The applicant's oldest son asked them to take him instead of his 18-old brother, but one of the soldiers said “We don't need you”. They took |
Magomed Ye. | 83. In their memorandum of 2 October 2008 the Government also stated, without providing copies of such documents or the dates when they were obtained, that the investigators had also questioned the brother and cousin of |
Apti Isigov | 67. It then concluded that Major M., Senior Lieutenant K. and servicemen of the federal armed forces who had participated in the special operation in Sernovodsk on 2 July 2001 had not been involved in the abduction of |
Rizvan Tatariyev | 38. They then proceeded to the room where the fourteenth applicant and her son Rizvan Tatariyev had been sleeping. Several servicemen threw Rizvan Tatariyev onto the floor and started to kick him, before tying his hands behind his back. They inspected his driving licence and said “It’s him”. They did not ask for his passport. In the meantime the fourteenth applicant tried to get to her son, but the military pushed her away. Then they escorted |
Ramzan Saidov | 25. The applicant’s neighbours, Z.A. and Ya.U., were questioned. They stated that in October 2002 they had heard cries for help and had seen UAZ and URAL vehicles and a large number of armed servicemen in camouflage uniforms in the yard of the applicant’s house. The servicemen stayed there for about an hour and then drove away. Z.A. and Ya.U. later learnt from the applicant that the servicemen had abducted her son. On the same day I.S. and A.G. had been abducted, but were released two weeks later. However, there was no news about |
Mazniashvili | 9. On 7 June 2004 the applicant brought a civil action against Mr G., requesting that the contract of sale be declared null and void for having been entered into under duress (“the civil case”). In particular, the applicant, referring to the relevant factual circumstances, claimed that the respondent, by then an extremely powerful person in the AAR, had forced him to cede the |
Abubakar Tsechoyev | 45. The applicant appealed against that decision to the Ingushetia Supreme Court stating, amongst other things, the following:
“... on 24 March 2012 criminal case no. 12600026 was opened in connection with my brother’s abduction ...
We [the relatives of |
Khumana Sakayeva | 5. The applicants are:
1) Mr Akhmed Ismailov, born in 1949,
2) Mr Alkhazur Ismailov, born in 1985,
3) Mr Shamil (also spelled Shamal) Ismailov, born in 1995,
4) Ms Ruman Sokayeva (also spelled as Rumani or |
İrfan Odabaş | 78. On 17 June 1996 the Bismil public prosecutor issued a decision of non-jurisdiction and referred the case to the Diyarbakır Provincial Administrative Council. The Administrative Council appointed Captain |
Dalakishvili | 145. Those individuals all said that they had not been officially informed of the applicants' imminent extradition and that they had learned later, on the morning of 4 October 2002, that five Chechen prisoners were to be extradited. Mr Buchukuri and Mr |
Sulejman Tihić | 22. The Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters, adopted a number of Opinions in this connection.
The Opinion on the constitutional situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the powers of the High Representative (document CDL-AD(2005)004 of 11 March 2005) reads, in the relevant part, as follows:
“1. On 23 June 2004 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Resolution 1384 on ‘Strengthening of democratic institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina’. Paragraph 13 of the Resolution asks the Venice Commission to examine several constitutional issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
... 29. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country in transition facing severe economic problems and desiring to take part in European integration. The country will only be able to cope with the numerous challenges resulting from this situation if there is a strong and effective government. The constitutional rules on the functioning of the State organs are however not designed to produce strong government but to prevent the majority from taking decisions adversely affecting other groups. It is understandable that in a post-conflict situation there was (and is) insufficient trust between ethnic groups to allow government on the basis of the majoritarian principle alone. In such a situation specific safeguards have to be found which ensure that all major groups, in Bosnia and Herzegovina the constituent peoples, can accept the constitutional rules and feel protected by them. As a consequence the Bosnia and Herzegovina Constitution ensures the protection of the interests of the constituent peoples not only through territorial arrangements reflecting their interests but also through the composition of the State organs and the rules on their functioning. In such a situation, a balance has indeed to be struck between the need to protect the interests of all constituent peoples on the one hand and the need for effective government on the other. However, in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Constitution, there are many provisions ensuring the protection of the interests of the constituent peoples, inter alia: the vital interest veto in the Parliamentary Assembly, the two-chamber system and the collective Presidency on an ethnic basis. The combined effect of these provisions makes effective government extremely difficult, if not impossible. Hitherto the system has more or less functioned due to the paramount role of the High Representative. This role is however not sustainable.
The vital interest veto 30. The most important mechanism ensuring that no decisions are taken against the interest of any constituent people is the vital interest veto. If the majority of the Bosniac, Croat or Serb delegates in the House of Peoples declare that a proposed decision of the Parliamentary Assembly is destructive to a vital interest of their people, the majority of Bosniac, Serb and Croat delegates have to vote for the decision for it to be adopted. The majority of delegates from another people may object to the invocation of the clause. In this case a conciliation procedure is foreseen and ultimately a decision is taken by the Constitutional Court as to the procedural regularity of the invocation. It is noteworthy that the Constitution does not define the notion of vital interest veto, contrary to the Entity Constitutions which provide a (excessively broad) definition. 31. It is obvious, and was confirmed by many interlocutors, that this procedure entails a serious risk of blocking decision-making. Others argued that this risk should not be overestimated since the procedure has rarely been used and the Constitutional Court in a decision of 25 June 2004 started to interpret the notion [see decision U-8/04 on the vital interest veto against the Framework Law on Higher Education]. The decision indeed indicates that the Court does not consider that the vital interest is a purely subjective notion within the discretion of each member of parliament and which would not be subject to review by the Court. On the contrary, the Court examined the arguments put forward to justify the use of the vital interest veto, upheld one argument and rejected another. 32. The Commission is nevertheless of the opinion that a precise and strict definition of vital interest in the Constitution is necessary. The main problem with veto powers is not their use but their preventive effect. Since all politicians involved are fully conscious of the existence of the possibility of a veto, an issue with respect to which a veto can be expected will not even be put to the vote. Due to the existence of the veto, a delegation taking a particularly intransigent position and refusing to compromise is in a strong position. It is true that further case-law from the Constitutional Court may provide a definition of the vital interest and reduce the risks inherent in the mechanism. This may however take a long time and it also seems inappropriate to leave such a task with major political implications to the Court alone without providing it with guidance in the text of the Constitution. 33. Under present conditions within Bosnia and Herzegovina, it seems unrealistic to ask for a complete abolition of the vital interest veto. The Commission nevertheless considers that it would be important and urgent to provide a clear definition of the vital interest in the text of the Constitution. This definition will have to be agreed by the representatives of the three constituent peoples but should not correspond to the present definition in the Entity Constitutions which allows practically anything being defined as vital interest. It should not be excessively broad but focus on rights of particular importance to the respective peoples, mainly in areas such as language, education and culture.
Entity veto 34. In addition to the vital interest veto, Article IV § 3 (d) of the Constitution provides for a veto by two-thirds of the delegation from either Entity. This veto, which in practice seems potentially relevant only for the Republika Srpska, appears redundant having regard to the existence of the vital interest veto.
Bicameral system 35. Article IV of the Constitution provides for a bicameral system with a House of Representatives and a House of Peoples both having the same powers. Bicameral systems are typical for federal States and it is therefore not surprising that the Bosnia and Herzegovina Constitution opts for two chambers. However, the usual purpose of the second chamber in federal States is to ensure a stronger representation of the smaller entities. One chamber is composed on the basis of population figures while in the other either all entities have the same number of seats (Switzerland, USA) or at least smaller entities are overrepresented (Germany). In Bosnia and Herzegovina this is quite different: in both chambers two-thirds of the members come from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the difference being that in the House of Peoples only the Bosniacs and Croats from the Federation and the Serbs from the Republika Srpska are represented. The House of Peoples is therefore not a reflection of the federal character of the State but an additional mechanism favouring the interests of the constituent peoples. The main function of the House of Peoples under the Constitution is indeed as the chamber where the vital interest veto is exercised. 36. The drawback of this arrangement is that the House of Representatives becomes the chamber where legislative work is done and necessary compromises are made in order to achieve a majority. The role of the House of Peoples is only negative as a veto chamber, where members see as their task to exclusively defend the interests of their people without having a stake in the success of the legislative process. It would therefore seem preferable to move the exercise of the vital interest veto to the House of Representatives and abolish the House of Peoples. This would streamline procedures and facilitate the adoption of legislation without endangering the legitimate interests of any people. It would also solve the problem of the discriminatory composition of the House of Peoples.
The collective Presidency 37. Article V of the Constitution provides for a collective Presidency with one Bosniac, one Serb and one Croat member and a rotating chair. The Presidency endeavours to take its decisions by consensus (Article V § 2 (c)). In case of a decision by a majority, a vital interest veto can be exercised by the member in the minority. 38. A collective Presidency is a highly unusual arrangement. As regards the representational functions of Head of State, these are more easily carried out by one person. At the top of the executive there is already one collegiate body, the Council of Ministers, and adding a second collegiate body does not seem conducive to effective decision-making. This creates a risk of duplication of decision-making processes and it becomes difficult to distinguish the powers of the Council of Ministers and of the Presidency. Moreover, the Presidency will either not have the required technical knowledge available within ministries or need substantial staff, creating an additional layer of bureaucracy. 39. A collective Presidency therefore does not appear functional or efficient. Within the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its existence seems again motivated by the need to ensure participation by representatives from all constituent peoples in all important decisions. A single President with important powers seems indeed difficult to envisage for Bosnia and Herzegovina. 40. The best solution therefore would be to concentrate executive power within the Council of Ministers as a collegiate body in which all constituent peoples are represented. Then a single President as Head of State should be acceptable. Having regard to the multi-ethnic character of the country, an indirect election of the President by the Parliamentary Assembly with a majority ensuring that the President enjoys wide confidence within all peoples would seem preferable to direct elections. Rules on rotation providing that a newly elected President may not belong to the same constituent people as his predecessor may be added.
... 74. In the present case, the distribution of posts in the State organs between the constituent peoples was a central element of the Dayton Agreement making peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina possible. In such a context, it is difficult to deny legitimacy to norms that may be problematic from the point of view of non-discrimination but necessary to achieve peace and stability and to avoid further loss of human lives. The inclusion of such rules in the text of the Constitution [of Bosnia and Herzegovina] at that time therefore does not deserve criticism, even though they run counter to the general thrust of the Constitution aiming at preventing discrimination. 75. This justification has to be considered, however, in the light of developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the entry into force of the Constitution. Bosnia and Herzegovina has become a member of the Council of Europe and the country has therefore to be assessed according to the yardstick of common European standards. It has now ratified the [European Convention on Human Rights] and Protocol No. 12 [thereto]. As set forth above, the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has evolved in a positive sense but there remain circumstances requiring a political system that is not a simple reflection of majority rule but which guarantees a distribution of power and positions among ethnic groups. It therefore remains legitimate to try to design electoral rules ensuring appropriate representation for various groups. 76. This can, however, be achieved without entering into conflict with international standards. It is not the system of consensual democracy as such which raises problems but the mixing of territorial and ethnic criteria and the apparent exclusion from certain political rights of those who appear particularly vulnerable. It seems possible to redesign the rules on the Presidency to make them compatible with international standards while maintaining the political balance in the country. 77. A multi-ethnic composition can be ensured in a non-discriminatory way, for example by providing that not more than one member of the Presidency may belong to the same people or the Others and combining this with an electoral system ensuring representation of both Entities. Or, as suggested above, as a more radical solution which would be preferable in the view of the Commission, the collective Presidency could be abolished and replaced by an indirectly elected President with very limited powers.
... 80. The House of Peoples is a chamber with full legislative powers. Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the [European Convention on Human Rights] is thereby applicable and any discrimination on ethnic grounds is thereby prohibited by Article 14 of the [Convention]. As to a possible justification, the same considerations as with respect to the Presidency apply. While it is a legitimate aim to try to ensure an ethnic balance within Parliament in the interest of peace and stability, this can justify ethnic discrimination only if there are no other means to achieve this goal and if the rights of minorities are adequately respected. For the House of Peoples it would for example be possible to fix a maximum number of seats to be occupied by representatives from each constituent people. Or, as argued above, a more radical solution which would have the preference of the Commission, could be chosen and the House of Peoples simply be abolished and the vital national interest mechanism be exercised within the House of Representatives.”
The Opinion on different proposals for the election of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CDL-AD(2006)004 of 20 March 2006), in the relevant part, provides:
“1. By letter dated 2 March 2006 the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr |
Madina Vakhayeva | 44. Raisa Vakhayeva is Nurzhan Vakhayeva's sister-in-law (see statement by Nurzhan Vakhayeva, applicant 12, below). She had five children, including Khava Vakhayeva (born in 1987), Adlan Vakhayev (born in 1989), |
Van Duijvenvoorde | 228. Detective Chief Superintendent Van Duijvenvoorde had also gone back with Officer Bultstra, who had shown him where he thought Officer Brons had parked the car. This was about forty-eight metres away from the lamp post. He had asked Officer Bultstra to run that distance and timed him with a stopwatch. It had taken him 9.4 seconds. Detective Chief Superintendent |
Hakan Torun | 55. On 5 March 2002 the Beytüşşebap Prosecutor drew up a report (fezleke) in which he set out the developments in his investigation and forwarded it to the Ministry of Justice on 19 March 2002. The Prosecutor asked the Ministry to grant authorisation for the prosecution of |
Tanju Güvendiren | 56. After having received the case-file, Tanju Güvendiren, the public prosecutor at the State Security Court noted that the investigation had been incomplete. In order to complete the investigation, he issued a number of instructions to the Mazıdağı District gendarme station by letter of 13 September 1993 including that comparison cartridges be taken from the weapons held by the village guards from Karataş. On 19 October 1993 the Commander of the Mazıdağı District gendarme station transmitted 65 weapon delivery receipts and 65 empty cartridges taken from the Balpınar village guards to the office of the public prosecutor at the State Security Court. This letter contained no information as to when and in which manner these cartridges were obtained.
Although |
Gilani Iriskhanov | 36. On 24 June 2002 the first applicant was granted victim status in the criminal case and questioned. She stated that at about 8 p.m. on 19 June 2002 three APCs with a group of about fifty military servicemen had arrived at her yard. The registration numbers on the vehicles had been covered with mud. The servicemen were armed; they swore a lot and fired gunshots in the air. They grabbed |
Magomed Shakhgiriyev | 42. According to the applicants, on 8 November 2002 five male bodies were discovered by the local residents in the forest near the village of Vinogradnoye, in the Grozny district, near the road to Tolstoy-Yurt. The bodies were delivered to the mosque of Tolstoy-Yurt. On 9 November 2002 several relatives of the persons missing since 23 October 2002 travelled there and identified them as the five men who had been detained in Chechen-Aul: |
Ivana Dvořáčková | 5. The first applicant, Mr Ivan Dvořáček, was born in 1942. The second applicant, Mrs Jozefa Dvořáčková, was born in 1945. They are married and live in Bratislava. They filed the application also on behalf of Ms |
Hüseyin Koku’s | 30. Following Hüseyin Koku’s abduction, Mustafa Yeter and Hasan Güner were made temporary leaders of HADEP’s Elbistan branch. They were later arrested and subjected to torture. Mr Yeter was threatened by the police not to talk about |
B. Gogoladze | 56. This part of the application concerns the applicants B. Gogoladze, A. Tvaradze and M. Kapanadze (nos. 13, 14 and 15). On 1 April 2001 the applicants were returning from a religious meeting. In the village of Dviri (Borjomi district, Western Georgia), they were attacked by a group of villagers accompanied by Mr S.Kh., and Mr J.B., administrative head of the county town of the district and administrative head of the village respectively. One of the attackers, a private individual, struck |
Khalid Bagirov | 5. The applicants stood as candidates in the parliamentary elections of 7 November 2010 and applied for registration as candidates in various single-mandate electoral constituencies (see Appendix). Mr |
the Minister of the Interior | 141. According to the relevant video recordings, the four accused rejected that proposal. A.A.-uri replied: “Everyone who was there is now in prison.” A.Gh.-ava said: “I am naming no names, like I said the first time I was questioned, I know nothing and nobody was involved.” M.B.‑dze declared that nobody else, including |
Kaspar Villiger | 14. In respect of the Swiss Radio and Television Company, the Federal Court considered the application on the merits. It held that, although politically committed journalism was not prohibited in itself, it should be identifiable as such. In the present case the journalist had conveyed his support for one particular viewpoint through harsh criticism. In short, the Federal Court did not object to the programme’s content but rather to the fact that the method used, namely politically committed journalism, had not been identified as such. It pointed out that journalism of that nature was subject to particularly stringent rules of diligence, which the programme had not observed. The journalist should have informed viewers that the report was not presenting an indisputable truth but rather one possible interpretation of relations between Switzerland and Germany. The Federal Court accordingly dismissed the Swiss Radio and Television Company’s application. The relevant parts of the judgment read as follows:
“5. (b) ...
The impugned programme concerns a historical subject – Switzerland’s position during the Second World War – which has returned to prominence on account of the issue of unclaimed assets. By broadcasting a programme on a matter of public debate, the Swiss Radio and Television Company was performing the role assigned to it, and it has rightly not been criticised on that account. Because of its historical aspect, the programme in issue was faced with a problem regarding sources: witnesses to the events recounted are becoming increasingly rare and certain elements that might have explained the conduct of the time are becoming blurred, as was noted in the decisions complained of. Accordingly, the explanation of historical facts relies on hypotheses that may serve as a basis for the construction of theories. In such circumstances, journalists must test their hypotheses and, where appropriate, adjust them, even if they are not expected to reveal an absolute truth. They must abide by the rules of journalistic diligence. Accordingly, in this context they must, in particular, indicate any persisting doubts, point out contradictions between witness accounts and mention the differing interpretations supported by some historians. On account of its topical nature, the programme in issue contributes to a debate and may be described as politically committed journalism in the sense referred to above. It has to satisfy particularly stringent requirements of journalistic diligence since it expresses criticism that may be especially painful. It is necessary to assess whether the rules of diligence applicable in the present case have been complied with, bearing in mind that such an assessment must take into account the situation obtaining at the time when the impugned programme was broadcast. 6. (a) The impugned programme, entitled ‘Switzerland’s lost honour’, begins by discussing the history of Switzerland during the Second World War, as supposedly experienced by the people at the time and taught for many years in schools. Switzerland had been depicted as a small, brave country which had resisted the demoniac forces of Nazism. Despite being neutral, in their hearts the Swiss had been on the side of democracy, in other words the Allies. They had deterred the Nazis from attacking them through their determination to resist, if necessary with the help of the Réduit, a kind of impregnable fortress in the Alps. They had displayed generosity by welcoming more than 230,000 people who had fled the extermination camps and by temporarily receiving child war victims. Switzerland had introduced banking secrecy so that Jews could store their savings safely in the country. After this recounting of the ‘myth’, the journalist states: ‘There has been a somewhat rude awakening.’ The programme continues with severe criticism of Switzerland’s position during the Second World War by prominent figures – most of them Jewish – and with contrasting opinions of Swiss citizens who lived through the period and young people who know about it only through the ‘myth’. The journalist then asserts that in the past twenty-five years, historians studying the period have uncovered a significant part of the truth. Next, the programme describes the attitude of Switzerland, and in particular its political and military leaders, during the Second World War, emphasising their alleged affinity with the far right and their inclination towards rapprochement with Germany. The question of Swiss anti-Semitism is then examined, along with the economic and financial relations between Switzerland and Germany. The programme alleges that the Réduit served Germany’s economic interests and focuses on the laundering of Nazi money by Switzerland and on the role of Swiss banks and insurance companies in the matter of unclaimed Jewish assets. The journalist concludes by saying: ‘The experts of the Volcker Commission and the historians of the Bergier Commission will no doubt confirm that the Swiss political and economic elite in this difficult period adapted to the circumstances rather too well. Their biggest mistake was probably their failure to acknowledge and come to terms with that attitude after the war; to acknowledge that the Swiss were not heroes but normal people caught up in events, who succeeded in taking advantage, for themselves and their descendants, of the most appalling global crisis of the twentieth century.’
(b) The Complaints Authority, which did not criticise the content of the programme in issue, found that the Swiss Radio and Television Company had breached section 4 of the Federal Radio and Television Act by using a method, described as politically committed journalism in the decisions under review, which had not allowed viewers to form their own opinion. The company had not observed the principles of journalistic diligence since it had never suggested that there were differing views among the historians who had distanced themselves from the ‘myth’ that had built up with regard to Switzerland’s position during the Second World War.
(c) The Swiss Radio and Television Company disputes that the programme in issue can be regarded as politically committed journalism, which is subject to particularly stringent rules of diligence. It argues that, in any event, the programme complied with such rules. The company also complains of a misuse of discretionary power. It accuses the relevant authority of having reaffirmed the conclusions of its decisions of 24 October 1997 despite the fact that the additional investigation had virtually demolished the reasoning on which they were based, and of having acted arbitrarily by assuming the role of the ultimate authority on historical science. 7. (a) As the Complaints Authority noted, the programme in issue sets the ‘myth’ against the ‘truth’ which historians have brought to light, without indicating the disagreements existing between them. In various spheres, such as the basis of Switzerland’s economic relations with Nazi Germany, the purpose of the Réduit or the explanation of Switzerland’s independence, it makes no reference to differing views, despite the fact that opinion on these matters is far from unanimous, as the Complaints Authority showed. Similarly, the decisions under review observe that the programme in issue merely provides one explanation for the conduct of a prominent figure such as General Guisan, without mentioning that there are other explanations that are just as valid, if not more so.
While accusing the Swiss authorities, at least implicitly, of having deceived the population for some fifty years with a ‘myth’, the impugned programme, without admitting as much, also gives its own interpretation which is no less categorical. This impression is, moreover, reinforced by interviews, in which ordinary men and women who lived through the events under discussion defend the ‘myth’, expressing their emotions with varying degrees of articulacy, while historians, who are expected to have a rigorous grasp of their subject, provide the ‘truth’. As the Complaints Authority rightly pointed out, the programme in issue ridicules the wartime generation by showing recollections that are incorrect or exaggerated or convey a misplaced sense of self-satisfaction, contrasting with the cold logic of the historians. This leaves the impression that the interpretation put forward in the programme is corroborated by all specialists and thus reflects the sole historical truth. There is therefore a risk that one myth might be replaced by another, and only the observance of strict rules of journalistic diligence can prevent such a lapse. Furthermore, the programme does not always place the events it describes in their historical context as precisely as is desirable. It takes insufficient account of certain important aspects (for example, the threats Switzerland faced as a result of being surrounded by the Axis powers, and the position of other neutral or even Allied powers) for viewers to be able to form an opinion, or plays down their significance. Lastly, it does not always enable facts to be distinguished from comment (see the speech given on 7 May 1995 by |
Allahverdiyev Amil Allahverdi oglu | 13. On 21 March 2008 the Narimanov District Court examined the prosecutor’s request. At the hearing before the court, the applicant’s lawyer asked the judge to apply a non-custodial preventive measure, submitting that the applicant had no criminal record, that he had a permanent place of residence, and that he was young. The judge at the Narimanov District Court, relying on the official charges brought against the applicant and the prosecutor’s request for the application of the preventive measure of remand in custody, remanded the applicant in custody for a period of three months. The judge substantiated the necessity for this measure as follows:
“Taking into account the fact that there is sufficient evidence that |
Aslan Askharov | 44. Ms R. M., the applicant’s neighbour, was questioned on an unspecified date. She submitted that at the end of May 2001 unidentified servicemen dressed in camouflage accompanied by armoured vehicles had abducted seven residents of Serzhen-Yurt. Later that day some of the abducted men had been found on the outskirts of Serzhen-Yurt. Then Mr |
Murat Demir | 76. The statement also contains a detailed description of the killing of Talat Türkoğlu. The statement, insofar as relevant reads:
“We then went to Çadırkent in two cars and took Talat Türkoğlu there with us. |
Sergeant K. | 24. As soon as the jeep drew up in front of the house, between 1 and 1.30 p.m., Sergeant K. recognised Mr Angelov, who was inside, behind the window. Having noticed the vehicle, the fugitives tried to escape. The officers heard the sound of a window pane being broken. Major G. and Sergeants K. and N. jumped out of the vehicle while it was still moving. Major G. and |
Adam Ayubov | 15. According to Adam Ayubov’s sister, Ms Liza Azimova, on 19 January 2000 the Russian TV channel NTV showed an interview with Russian servicemen concerning the military actions in Grozny, which was recorded in the vicinity of the Ayubov family domicile. One of the servicemen mentioned the capture of a Chechen sniper, “a master of sports in shooting”, briefly showed a passport with that man’s photograph and stated that the sniper’s name was Arsanov [rather than Ayubov]. Ms Azimova insisted that she had recognised her brother’s photograph in the passport and that he had been the only master of sports in shooting in the Northern Caucasus, and that therefore the servicemen had been describing the arrest of |
Anvar Shaipov | 60. On 11 February 2007 the investigators questioned the fourth applicant's daughter, Ms L.Sh., who stated that at about 5 p.m. on 13 September 2000 their relative Mr A. Zh. had arrived at their house and told her about the arrest of |
Akhmed Buzurtanov | 57. On the same date, the investigators questioned Mr R.K., who stated that on 6 December 2012 he had been with Mr Akhmed Buzurtanov at the sports club until about 10 p.m. At about 2.30 a.m. on 7 December 2012 the applicants had called him looking for Mr |
Tamerlan Suleymanov | 67. On 23 June 2011 the investigators questioned Mr Se. M., a lawyer from the Chechnya Public Chamber, who stated that on 30 May 2011 the applicant had complained that his son had been abducted and that in his complaint the applicant had referred to Officer Magomed M., the deputy head of the Staropromyslovskiy ROVD. On the same date the witness had called the officer, who had explained that he had indeed detained |
Roman Bersnukayev | 33. According to Mr A., Roman Bersnukayev had joined the group and had been with them for about two weeks when in March 2000 two members of the Martan-Chu militia found the group and told them about the amnesty. |
Khanpasha Dzhabrailov | 29. According to the applicant, at some point she and her daughter spoke to an official of the district prosecutor’s office, who had allegedly said to them that Mr Khanpasha Dzhabrailov had confessed that he had been a participant in illegal armed groups. In the Government’s submission, in the criminal investigation file there was a police report, rather than Mr |
Ibragim Betayev | 25. On the following days the applicants regularly went to Urus-Martan to visit all district authorities and find out whether there had been any news of their sons. However, no authority acknowledged any involvement in the abduction of Lecha and |
Melnychenko | 16. In April 2001 the Radio Svoboda web-site made available recordings of conversations which had allegedly taken place between the President of Ukraine, Mr Kuchma, and the Head of the State Tax Administration, Mr M. A. There recordings were provided by Mr |
Sandro Girgvliani | 108. In answer to a question from the prosecutor, Th.M.-dze said she had not had a tense conversation with Sandro Girgvliani or his friend L.B.‑dze. Apart from calling one of them a “poof”, Sandro Girgvliani had not insulted the people she was with. In answer to another question, Th.M.‑dze said there was an 80% chance that the other people in the party had not overheard the insult in question, as |
Said-Emin Sambiyev | 10. On the same date the applicant met Mr V.M. and asked him about her son. Mr V.M. told her that he and Said-Emin Sambiyev had been detained in separate pits in the ground which were situated not far from each other. During the detention Mr V. M. had had a sack over his head. At some point he had called the name of |
Subsets and Splits