The European Court of Human Rights has fined Russia a record 1.72 million euros (about $2.3 mln) for killing at least 24 Chechen villagers in a military operation against militants in 2000.
"Under Article 41 [just satisfaction] of the Convention [on Human Rights], the Court held that Russia was to pay the applicants a total of 1,720,000 euros...in respect of non-pecuniary damage and 2,266 euros in respect of costs and expenses," the court said in a statement on Thursday.
The Abuyeva and Others v. Russia case involved 29 applicants and concerned the attack by the Russian military forces in February 2000 on the village of Katyr-Yurt following its capture by a large group of Chechen militants who had escaped from Grozny.
The assault, during which the Russian forces used "heavy free-falling aviation bombs, missiles and other arsenal," resulted in the deaths of 24 villagers and injuries sustained by 10 other villagers.
The seven-judge panel, which included a Russian judge, has concluded that no effective investigation had been carried out to date into the circumstances of the attack on Katyr-Yurt and ruled that although the military operation had pursued a legitimate aim, "it had not been planned and executed with the requisite care for the lives of the civilian population."
Under the European Convention on Human Rights, Russia or the applicants have three months to appeal the ruling in the court's Grand Chamber.
Russia has lost the majority of its cases in the Strasbourg Court.
On November 25, the court fined Russia 240,000 euros (about $319,000) for the killing of four young Chechen residents in an attack by federal soldiers on another village in 2000.
Last year, suits against Russia accounted for more than one quarter of all cases filed in the Strasbourg court.
STRASBOURG, December 3 (RIA Novosti)
