Bolat vs. Russia case to be considered by European Court

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has started considering the case of Bolat vs. Russia, lawyer Iskhak Kuchukov told the Caucasian Knot correspondent in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Hajji Bayram Bolat arrived at Nalchik from Istanbul and was detained right in the Nalchik airport on August 25, in spite of the fact that he had a Russian residential permit. After three days of arrest, he was expelled back.

Iskhak Kuchukov announced that Representative of the Russian Federation to the ECHR Pavel Laptev sent a memorandum to Strasbourg, in which he writes that the Federal Security Service (FSB) prohibited Mr Bolat from entering Kabardino-Balkaria on the strength of Article 27 of the Law on the Procedure of Exit from the Russian Federation and Entry into the Russian Federation, under which "foreign citizens are not allowed in the country with the purpose of providing the country's defensive capacity or security as well as maintaining public order and protecting the health of the population." Mr Laptev said that "copies of operational documents in which grounds for the prohibition of the declarant's entry are indicated cannot be submitted to court as they hold information rated as state secret."

Commenting on Laptev's statement, lawyer Kuchukov, defending the Adyg repatriate, said: "A foreigner legally staying on the territory of the state can be deported only on the ground of a decision made by a competent agency in keeping with the procedure established by the law. The FSB deported Mr Bolat without legal grounds."