MOSCOW, June 20 - RAPSI. The European Court on Human Rights' judgment over the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis becomes final.
The court has satisfied the complaint filed by lawyers Igor Truniv and Lyudmila Aivar, rectified errors and amended the language of the judgment accordingly.
Earlier, Trunov said the applicants lost 83 civil actions for moral damages in Russian courts. The courts only awarded material damages and solely to applicants whose family lost their breadwinner in the terrorist act.
Trunov said the European court's judgment will help resume the investigation into the terrorist act, as the decisions to deny opening criminal cases should be canceled.
In October 2002, some 40 terrorists took hostage an audience of over 900 people at the Dubrovka theater in Moscow. After three days of negotiations, security forces released an undisclosed gas to disable the terrorists before storming the building. The gas is believed to have led to the deaths of a number of hostages.
The aggrieved parties lodged a complaint with the Strasbourg court against the authorities in 2003. On December 20, 2011, the court held for the claimants, but also ruled that the authorities did not violate human rights when they used the gas. The court awarded 64 claimants a total of 1.3 million euro.