Today INTERIGHTS, the legal representatives for the family of the former Chechen leader, Aslan Maskhadov, provided written details to the European Court of Human Rights of their complaint against Russia regarding the circumstances surrounding his death.

Elected in 1997 as president of the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Maskhadov was killed on 8 March 2005 in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt in Chechnya during the course of special operations carried out by Russia’s internal security services, the FSB. The precise circumstances regarding Maskhadov’s death are disputed, although the family contends that Maskhadov was killed by FSB agents.

The Russian authorities failed to inform Maskhadov’s family of his death. The family learned this news via reports on State television which were triumphalist in tone and included footage of Mr Maskhadov’s corpse displaying multiple bullet wounds and bruising.

The Russian authorities failed to carry out any adequate investigation into Mr Maskhadov’s death and refused to release his body for burial despite repeated requests from his family. They sought to justify their decision by arguing that Maskhadov had been engaged in terrorist activity (...)