Russia Broke Human-Rights Rules in 2002 Terror Siege, Court Says

By Stephanie Bodoni

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Russia violated European human- rights rules guaranteeing the right to life in its handling of the liberation of hostages during a 2002 terrorist attack on a Moscow theater, a court ruled.

Russia must pay each of the 64 claimants in the case damages ranging from 8,800 euros ($11,500) to 52,800 euros, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled today. The victims had sought as much as 840,000 euros each.

Chechen insurgents carried out the deadliest attack ever in Moscow during the three-day-long Dubrovka theater hostage-taking in October 2002. After Russian authorities raided the theater to end the standoff, 130 people were dead.

Russia used excessive force, failed to provide adequate medical assistance to the hostages and didn’t have an effective investigation of the events, the 64 victims and relatives of victims that brought the case argued. The claimants, in particular, challenged the use of an unknown gas in the theater that allegedly killed or injured the terrorists and a large number of hostages.

The court ruled Russia breached European human-rights rules through its inadequate planning and conduct of the rescue operation and “the authorities’ failure to conduct an effective investigation into the rescue operation.”

The court rejected the claim that there was a violation of human rights by Russia’s decision “to resolve the hostage crisis by force and to use the gas.”

--Editors: Christopher Scinta, Peter Chapman

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Brussels via sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net


(2011-12-21/businessweek.com)