{"id":194388,"date":"2022-06-09T09:07:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T07:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scm.bz?p=194388"},"modified":"2022-06-09T09:07:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T07:07:04","slug":"wagner-in-syria-complaint-filed-with-european-court-of-human-rights-following-the-dismissal-of-the-case-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scm.bz\/en\/wagner-in-syria-complaint-filed-with-european-court-of-human-rights-following-the-dismissal-of-the-case-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Wagner in Syria: Complaint filed with European Court of Human Rights following the dismissal of the case in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Paris, 9 June 2022 – Given the\u00a0 Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation\u2019s failure to open a judicial investigation into the murder of a Syrian national in 2017 by members of the private military company (PMC) Wagner (“Wagner group”) in Syria, lawyers from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Memorial Human Rights Center (HRC), and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) have<\/b> appealed<\/b> to the European Court of Human Rights. (ECtHR)<\/b><\/p>\n

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This complaint is the continuation of a long legal battle \u2013 led in Russia by the victim\u2019s brother, <\/span>Abdullah Elismail<\/b>, and the three organisations working on the case (FIDH, SCM, and Memorial) \u2013 to shed light on the brutal killing of <\/span>Mohammed Elismail<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Alexander Cherkasov, chairman of Memorial Human Rights Center said \u201cThis case crystallizes the urgent need to hold private military groups such as Wagner accountable for their actions and, more generally, to establish State responsibility in such cases. It also shed light on the behavior of Wagner personnel, who are never held responsible for the crimes they commit in Syria, Ukraine, Mali, CAR, and Libya, among other countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cl\u00e9mence Bectarte, lawyer and coordinator of FIDH\u2019s Litigation Action Group<\/b>, explains: \u201cIf the filing is declared admissible, the ECtHR will have to address a major and long-neglected issue regarding atrocities perpetrated by the Wagner Group: its link with the Russian State and the latter\u2019s responsibility in the group\u2019s atrocities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The torture, murder, and subsequent mutilation of the victim\u2019s body by several Russian-speaking men, were captured on video, and widely spread online. Several NGOs identified, to a fair degree of certainty, one of the men as being <\/span>Stanislav Dychko<\/b>, a known member of the Wagner group.<\/span><\/p>\n

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However, despite such damning evidence, and despite the involvement of at least one Russian citizen in the murder, the Basmanny Court in Moscow, and the Moscow City Court, found that the inaction of the\u00a0 Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (IC) was lawful, stating that the reality of Mohammed\u2019s death was not established, and the reliability of the video footage not confirmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe continuous refusal of the Russian courts to investigate Mohammed\u2019s torture and death <\/span>constitutes<\/span> a grave violation of individuals\u2019 rights to life, to be free from torture and<\/span> to <\/span>an effective remedy protected respectively by articles 2, 3, and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.\u201d said Mazen Darwish, director of SCM. \u201cSyrian victims and their relatives deserve to see these criminals held accountable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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While Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022, the country remains subject to the European Convention on Human Rights until 16 September 2022 and can therefore be condemned for any violation that occurred before that date.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Timeline:<\/span><\/p>\n