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The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that the Russian military tortured two Chechen brothers when they were held in detention in 2000, the first such conviction against Russian forces, The Reuters news agency reports.
Adam and Arbi Chitayev said they were beaten with full water bottles and rubber truncheons, almost strangled with adhesive tape and gas masks, had set dogs on them and their skin torn with pliers during about six months of detention.
They said they believed they had survived only because of an article written by Anna Politkovskaya, a critic of President Vladimir Putin and human rights campaigner who was shot dead last year, and thanks to help from a human rights group.
The Strasbourg-based court said in a ruling:
