MOSCOW, July 25 (RAPSI) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday awarded €6,000 in compensation to Temirlan Eskerkhanov, a defendant in the case on the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

The court held that Russia had violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) concerning conditions of the applicant's detention and prison transfer. The ECHR also ruled that there had been violation of Article 5 of the Convention regarding “the lack of a speedy review of the grounds for Eskerkhanov’s detention.”

However, the Strasbourg court declared complaints lodged by two other Nemtsov murder case defendants inadmissible “in view of the disclosure of the friendly settlement negotiations by the applicants.”

Temirlan Eskerkhanov, Anzor Gubashev and Shadid Gubashev filed applications with the ECHR in March 2016 and October 2016 respectively. The complaints were joined.

The applicants complained of “conditions of their detention and transfer to and from prison, the length of their pre-trial detention and of excessively long proceedings in the judicial review of their detention,” the court’s document reads.

Russian authorities have offered Eskerkhanov €6,000 as compensation to quash his complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Kommersant newspaper reported in December.

Boris Nemtsov, 55, a prominent opposition politician, who held a number of high-ranking posts in the Russian government in the 1990s and in the 2000s joined the opposition, was shot down in the center of Moscow as he walked across a bridge near the Kremlin on the night of February 28, 2015.

Investigators believe that the conspirators in the murder had thoroughly prepared to commit this crime and spied on the victim. Five men have been charged with contract murder, illegal acquisition, carrying and keeping of weapons.

On July 13, the Moscow District Military Court sentenced murderers of Nemtsov to prison terms varying from 11 to 20 years. The court ruled in accordance with the will of the jury panel founding all defendants guilty. Zaur Dadayev, Nemtsov’s first-hand killer was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Anzor Gubashev was sentenced to 19 years, Shadid Gubashev to 16 years, Temirlan Eskerkhanov to 14 years and Khamzat Bakhayev to 11 years behind bars. The court fined defendants 100,000 rubles (about $1,700). |Shadid and Anzor Gubashev, Eskerkhanov and Bakhayev were also subjected to additional restriction of freedom for two years.

Ruslan Mukhudinov, a former officer in Chechen Interior Ministry, is believed to be a mastermind of the murder. He was placed on the international wanted list in November 2015. Beslan Shavanov, who allegedly was also implicated in the crime, reportedly killed himself when police tried to arrest him. Criminal prosecution of Shavanov was dismissed because of his death. Investigation into Mukhudinov is underway.