In 2008, the Chechen Umar Israilov sought help from the Austrian authorities – he later died. Russia did not cooperate with Austria in the investigation, the ECHR now ruled and found Israilov’s father right.
“Two killers are already hungry to kill me.” With these words, Umar Israilov asked the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution for help in 2008. However, he was denied this help. Seven months later, Israilov was dead, murdered on the street in Vienna. Israilov’s wife later said that he wanted to buy yogurt and gummy bears for his children in the supermarket right around the corner. As Israilov leaves the supermarket, his murderers’ bullets hit the 27-year-old in the back.
The Austrian justice system convicted three perpetrators. The police also discovered evidence that the murder had been ordered by the President of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. Kadyrov is considered a close ally of Vladimir Putin. His government, which is loyal to Moscow, is accused of numerous serious human rights violations in Chechnya.
Months of torture – including by Kadyrov himself
Umar Israilov, who was murdered in 2009, originally fought against Russia and for an independent Chechnya. For a short time he was a member of Ramzan Kadyrov’s militia. His former lawyer Nadja Lorenz described how this came about in 2010 on Deutschlandradio Kultur. “In the spring of 2003, he fell into the hands of Kadyrov and his henchmen,” she says. He experienced a three-month ordeal of torture, electric shocks and beatings – including at the hands of Ramzan Kadyrov himself. “Everything you can imagine or, better yet, don’t want to imagine.”
This forced him to break and he joined Kadyrov’s henchmen for a short time, Lorenz continues. “Then he decided to flee his homeland with his then smaller family, wife and two children.”
Israilov flees, reports and complains
Israilov received asylum in Austria in 2007. There he publicly reported on Ramzan Kadyrov’s brutal torture regime in Chechnya. Because of his crimes, he even initiated proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Umar Israilov’s father also filed a lawsuit there – against Russia. Because Russia did not cooperate with the Austrian judiciary when it wanted to clarify the background to his son’s murder and also wanted to find those behind it. In addition, after his son’s escape, he himself fell into the hands of Kadyrov’s henchmen. They tortured him to get information about his son who had fled.
What are the consequences of the verdict?
The ECHR found Israilov’s father right today: Russia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights, according to Strasbourg. Russian authorities did not cooperate adequately with the Austrian justice system in trying to identify those behind Israilov’s murder. In addition, the father’s allegations are convincing that he himself was tortured and arbitrarily detained. He was therefore awarded compensation of 104,000 euros.
However, the ruling will have no immediate consequences. Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights in 2022. However, there are still proceedings against Russia in Strasbourg if they were initiated before the end of the withdrawal deadline on September 16, 2022. Russia ignores the decisions of the ECHR. Shortly after the attack on Ukraine, the Russian Parliament officially decided that Russia would no longer be bound by ECHR decisions.
The Umar Israilov case has caused quite a stir in Austria. In 2015, the Vienna State Administrative Court ruled that the Republic of Austria was partly to blame for the death of the Chechen dissident. The Ministry of the Interior and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution did not protect the refugee, even though there were indications of a concrete threat. The court described the Austrian security authorities as “indifference” and “naïveté”.