Russian court orders payment of reparations for relatives of Chechen kidnapped in 1999

An appeals court in Sochi has upheld a local court’s decision to compensate the Ortsuyev family for inaction in the case of their relative’s abduction during the Second Chechen War, though the federal finance ministry and the Russian Investigative Committee tried to challenge the decision. The court issued its ruling back on 27 November, but it appeared on the court’s website only on 10 December.  According to the case file, 38-year-old Adam Ortsuyev disappeared in Grozny in December 1999. After the city was completely taken over by Russian federal troops, his family appealed to the Prosecutor’s Office to search for the missing man. In December 2001, a criminal case of kidnapping was opened. Since then, the criminal case has been suspended four times, and the investigation has been ongoing for 25 years without any results. The children of the missing man, Ali and Anzor, his brother Bekhan, and his wife Sovdat Ortsuyeva demanded compensation for the violation of reasonable time in the proceedings, asking for ₽1 million ($9,600) each. In the end, the Chechen Supreme Court ruled that Ortsuyeva was not entitled to claim compensation as only the wife of Ortsuyev, despite the fact that she was recognised as a...