Russia Condemned By Rights Court Over Politkovskaya, Pussy Riot

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Russia in two separate judgements Tuesday over its investigation into murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya and its treatment of the protest group Pussy Riot.

Strasbourg, France, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Jul, 2018 ) :The European Court of Human Rights condemned Russia in two separate judgements Tuesday over its investigation into murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya and its treatment of the protest group Pussy Riot.

In the case of Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in the stairwell of her Moscow apartment building in 2006, the court ruled that Russia "had failed to take adequate investigatory steps to find the person or persons who had commissioned the murder".

The judges at the court in Strasbourg found that Russian investigators should have explored possibilities that the crime was ordered by "agents from Russia's FSB domestic secret service or of the administration of the Chechen Republic".

Politkovskaya, a reporter for the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin and his role in the war-torn republic of Chechnya.

She was 48 when she was killed -- on Putin's birthday -- and her death sparked an international outcry.

Four men, including an FSB officer, were originally tried over her killing but acquitted in 2009.

After further investigations three of the same men -- two brothers and a police officer, but not the FSB officer -- were tried again along with two additional suspects.

In 2014 they were sentenced to prison, with Rustam Makhmudov, who fired the fatal shots, and his uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, identified as the organiser of the murder, now serving life terms.

"However, an investigation into such a killing could not be considered adequate if no efforts had been made to identify the person who had commissioned the crime and paid for it," the court said in its ruling.

It also criticised prosecutors for saying the inquiry continues, "without giving convincing reasons why it had lasted so long".

The case was filed at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by Politkovskaya's family, which has long claimed justice has not been done in the case.

The court ordered Russia to pay a total of 20,000 Euros ($23,500) to the four family members -- Politkovskaya's mother, sister and two children.

The ECHR covers allegations of rights abuses by any of the 47 governments signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Russia, which ratified the convention in 1998, is obliged to implement the court's judgements.