The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Lithuania to pay 100,000 euros in compensation to Mustafa al-Hawsawi, a Saudi national who was tortured in a secret prison in the Baltic country in 2005-2006. It should be recalled that at that time, as part of the CIA’s program to combat international terrorism (real and imaginary), secret prisons were created in several EU countries, in violation of the legislation of the respective countries.
These prisons were mainly used to detain people who were, or were suspected of being, associated with the recognized terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. In this way, these states, whose governments have long since changed, are paying for having tacitly consented to the use of their territory for criminal purposes (since torture is considered a crime).
Meanwhile, it was announced yesterday that the UN mission in the Central African Republic has opened an investigation into the torture of a citizen of that country on its territory by Russians, presumably from private military companies. «They beat me with chains, iron batons, cut my leg with a knife, as well as my hands and shoulders. They knocked out my tooth with a brick,» the victim said.
It is reported that he was rescued from the hands of the sadists thanks to the intervention of local law enforcement officials, who are at least capable of doing so in their own country. Can we expect that an international court will require, if not Russia, then Russian PMCs working under contract in the Central African Republic to pay compensation similar to what Lithuania is being forced to pay? Unfortunately, it is not certain, because the Central African Republic is not part of the European Union and the decisions of courts such as the European Court of Human Rights do not apply to it and its citizens.
Well, there is nothing to say about Russian courts, at least under the current regime. Let us recall that at the end of July last year, three Russian journalists, including our brother Orkhan Dzhemal, were systematically shot in the Central African Republic, and it has already been established that this was done by Russian citizens and coordinated from Russia. And if such acts can be committed against well-known journalists all over the country, what can be said about some unfortunate African who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? This is a fresh illustration of the idea recently expressed by the Kremlin’s mouthpiece that while the West is degenerating, Putin’s Russia is exporting its advanced experience around the world.