The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Russia to pay 207,000 euros to the families of three people it ruled were abducted by Russian security forces in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.
Sporadic terrorist attacks and militant clashes are common in Russia's volatile North Caucasus republics, where Russia has fought two wars against separatists in Chechnya.
A statement published Thursday on the court's website said the applicants in the first case testified that their relatives, Said-Selim Benyev and Aby Zhnalayev, were kidnapped in September 2002.
According to the evidence in the case, armed people wearing masks abducted the two men from their homes. Their relatives chased the vehicles driving away with the two men, but stopped after a serviceman got out and told them that the vehicles belonged to the department of the interior of the Urus-Martan District in Chechnya and that they could be shot if they continued their pursuit.
Benyev and Zhnalayev have not been seen since.
RIA Novosti
