The European Court for Human Rights agreed on 16 January to hear the cases of six Chechens who claim their relatives were tortured or killed by Russian troops in 1999-2000. The court rejected the Russian government\'s argument that the plaintiffs have not exhausted all possibilities to address their grievances offered by the Russian legal system. Russian human rights ombudsman for Chechnya Abdul-Khakim Sultygov rejected the court\'s decision as an attempt to exert pressure on Moscow on the eve of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) session that is to focus on Chechnya. But Russian Human Rights ombudsman Oleg Mironov commented that \"all citizens of Russia, including those of Chechnya, have the right to appeal to the European Court\" and that Moscow will regard that court\'s ruling as binding. (RFE/RL)