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Russian hostage theater survivors appeal to European court
Moscow, Oct 22: Survivors of Moscow`s Chechen theater hostage crisis said today they would ask the European Court of Human Rights to rule if Russia broke the law by ending the standoff with an opiate gas that killed nearly 130 people -- and then allegedly hushing up the inquiry.
Moscow, Oct 22: Survivors of Moscow's Chechen
theater hostage crisis said today they would ask the
European Court of Human Rights to rule if Russia broke the
law by ending the standoff with an opiate gas that killed
nearly 130 people -- and then allegedly hushing up the
inquiry.
Attorneys for the survivors of last October's hostage
taking said that Russian prosecutors had stymied all of their
inquiries into details about the incident and that they had
no alternative but to appeal to the Strasburg Court.
"The authorities failed to administer proper medicine (to the survivors) and at the same time are refusing to investigate why this was the case," said Yelena Liptser of the Civil Alliance of International Defense, a Russian group specializing in appeals to the European Court of Human Rights.
"These are two crimes that we are pursuing," she told reporter. "We will file a formal lawsuit within a month."
Some 40 Chechen rebels stormed the Moscow theater on October 23, 2002 and took around 800 people hostage while demanding an end to President Vladimir Putin's war in the separatist southern republic.
Putin refused to negotiate with the guerrillas and the conflict was resolved on October 26 when Russian special services pumped a powerful gas into the building to stun the hostage-takers before storming it.
Bureau Report
"The authorities failed to administer proper medicine (to the survivors) and at the same time are refusing to investigate why this was the case," said Yelena Liptser of the Civil Alliance of International Defense, a Russian group specializing in appeals to the European Court of Human Rights.
"These are two crimes that we are pursuing," she told reporter. "We will file a formal lawsuit within a month."
Some 40 Chechen rebels stormed the Moscow theater on October 23, 2002 and took around 800 people hostage while demanding an end to President Vladimir Putin's war in the separatist southern republic.
Putin refused to negotiate with the guerrillas and the conflict was resolved on October 26 when Russian special services pumped a powerful gas into the building to stun the hostage-takers before storming it.
Bureau Report