OREANDA-NEWS. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled on the case of the abduction of Salman Tepsurkayev, a 19-year-old moderator of the Telegram channel 1ADAT, who was abducted and tortured in 2020. This was reported on the court's website on Tuesday, October 19. The ECHR found that the Russian authorities violated articles 3 and 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms («Prohibition of Torture» and «Right to freedom and personal integrity») and awarded Tepsurkaev compensation in the amount of 26,000 euros.

The ECHR pointed to the involvement of the Chechen authorities in the ill-treatment of Tepsurkaev, as well as the ineffective investigation of his abduction by Russia. The Telegram channel 1ADAT talked about human rights violations in the Chechen Republic. Tepsurkaev was abducted by unknown persons in Gelendzhik on September 6, 2020. Eyewitnesses of the incident reported that the kidnappers showed certificates of Interior Ministry employees. The next day, a video was published in the chat 1 ADAT, in which Tepsurkaev scolds himself and this channel in Chechen, after which he tries to sit on a glass bottle. In another video that appeared the next day, Tepsurkaev says that he was forced to do it under threat of murder.

On September 1, lawyers of the «Committee against Torture» (CAT) sent a complaint to the ECHR about the violation of Tepsurkaev's rights. The CAT conducted it's own public investigation, as a result of which it was possible to obtain evidence of the involvement of the security forces in the abduction of the human rights defender.

The location of Tepsurkaev has not been established so far.