Russia's envoy to the Strasbourg-based court earlier asked that public access to evidence from the theater siege in 2002, when 130 hostages and 39 terrorists were killed, be restricted, as Russia plans to give all the case files to the court.
"The office of the European Court of Human Rights has said public access to the case files has been limited," Igor Trunov said.
Trunov earlier said he was acquainted with the files, which contained no secret information, and he saw no grounds to restrict access to them.
The lawyer said that if additional evidence was presented in secret, the European court's ruling would also be classified, which "could have legal implications" for the victims.
A total of 80 victims from Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan, have demanded 50,000 euros each in compensation for the violation of their human rights in the legal complaint made to the court in August 2003, according to Turnov.
In October 2002, some 40 terrorists took hostage an audience of over 900 people at a Dubrovka theatre performance of a musical. After three days of negotiations Russian security forces released an undisclosed gas to disable the terrorists before storming the building. According to official data, 130 hostages died from complications following the release of the gas.
