The ECtHR declared the investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov ineffective

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) declared the investigation into the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov “ineffective”. The court considered that the investigation did not seriously check the version of involvement in the murder of “certain state officials”, who were not even interrogated during the investigation. The ECHR also noted that the motive for the murder of Mr. Nemtsov had not been established. The daughter of the murdered politician was awarded €20,000 in compensation. In 2022, Russia withdrew from the jurisdiction of the ECtHR and refused to comply with its decisions.

On Tuesday, the ECtHR published its judgment in the case of Nemtsova v. Russia. Recall, opposition politician, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov was killed on the night of February 28, 2015. Within a month, the suspects were arrested and interrogations began. In August of the same year, Zhanna Nemtsova filed a complaint with the Strasbourg court: the politician’s daughter claimed that the investigation was ineffective. She pointed out that officials of the Chechen Republic could be the organizers and customers of the murder, but the investigation, according to her, refuses to interrogate them.

In 2017, five natives of Chechnya were found guilty of murder and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 11 to 20 years. The investigation and the court named Ruslan Mukhudinov as the customer of the murder; So far, he has not been arrested. Nevertheless, Ms. Nemtsova’s lawyers filed a number of additional complaints with the ECtHR. They insisted that the authorities had not made sufficient efforts to find real customers.

“Investigators should have studied the possibility of involvement in the murder of federal officials and officials of the regional administration of Chechnya. The applicant also alleged that her repeated complaints to the domestic courts in this regard were unreasonably dismissed,” the complaint reads.

Also, Ms. Nemtsova believed that the qualification of the crime under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Murder” was incorrect: “Given the clearly political context of the crime, it should have been qualified under Art. 277 (“Attempt on the life of a statesman or public figure”), which was also a crime not subject to statute of limitations.” The Russian government told the ECtHR that “the authorities have fulfilled their obligation to conduct an effective investigation” and “the applicant’s complaints about the alleged ineffectiveness of the investigation were duly considered by the domestic courts and dismissed with good cause”.

The decision of the ECtHR emphasizes: “the parties do not dispute the fact that the investigation was launched immediately” and that “a serious amount of evidence was collected by the investigation.” Nevertheless, the court pointed out that the government of the Russian Federation refused to provide it with the case materials necessary for assessing the work of the investigation, therefore “the court’s ability to assess the nature and degree of thoroughness of the investigation in the present case is significantly limited and is limited to an analysis of the written submissions of the parties submitted to it.” Earlier, the Russian government, with reference to Art. 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation explained that “the disclosure of documents would be contrary to the interests of the investigation.”

The decision of the ECHR also states that the case against the customers was not actively investigated “for at least more than five years” and this “compromised the investigation.”

The Court notes that Zhanna Nemtsova’s allegations of involvement in the murder of “certain state officials” “were not implausible”, and “persons whose names were repeatedly mentioned in the testimony and appeared in numerous evidence related to the events before and after the murder never have been interrogated.” According to the court, the investigation did not establish the motive of the alleged customers, “despite the numerous complaints of the applicant, pointing to the complete disregard by the authorities of the possible political subtext of the murder.” Based on this, the ECHR concluded that “the national authorities failed to conduct an adequate and effective investigation into the murder of Mr. Nemtsov” and ordered Russia to pay Zhanna Nemtsova €20,000 in compensation. RecallOn March 15, 2022, Russia announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as the refusal to implement the decisions of the ECtHR.

Polina Yachmennikova