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The price of a life: lawyer with attitude fights for Russian hostages
January 23, 2003
AFP

Lawyer Igor Trunov is the ultimate outsider. A newcomer to the profession who spent years in jail on trumped-up charges, he is now battling the authorities for compensation for the victims of last year's hostage drama in a Moscow theater.

Virtually a fixture on Russian television screens, Trunov is single-handedly representing more than 60 plaintiffs, including relatives of the dead as well as former hostages held for three long days by a Chechen commando last October.

He is demanding that the Moscow city authorities pay out some 60 million dollars to compensate them for their losses and suffering. The court's ruling Friday on the first 24 complaints may be the only the first step on a long road as Trunov -- who is offering his services free -- is determined to go all the way, taking the cases to the European Human Rights Court if that is what it takes.

A new death certificate arrives on Trunov's desk -- another item of evidence from a family seeking proper recompense for their ordeal, whose numbers have been steadily growing since the legal process was launched on January 16.

Some critics accuse the photogenic Trunov -- salt-and-pepper hair, a well-trimmed physique -- of simply seeking publicity, arguing that the victims have no chance of winning the huge sums claimed in their lawsuits.

However the lawyer who despite his novice status counts former interior minister Anatoly Kulikov among his clients rejects the charge.

"The bill on terrorism was voted into law in 1998. It allows a victim to demand compensation from the authorities of the city where a terrorist act takes place -- but it hasn't yet been used," Trunov told AFP.

"We need to create a precedent, so that the terrorism victims' right to compensation is finally acknowledged, as it is in France," he added with grim determination.

Trunov admitted that the amounts demanded were unlikely to be paid out, but he did not think they were exaggerated.

"Russian courts have already awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages simply for defamatory media articles. In February 2002, a Moscow court ordered a magazine to pay a million dollars to a high-ranking official on that charge," he recalled.

After the hostage drama at the "Nord Ost" theatre wound to its bloody end, Moscow city hall made ex-gratia payments to the victims' families of up to 3,100 dollars each.

The 41-year-old Trunov is a newcomer to the legal profession and his peers have had little opportunity to judge him, though he has written a number of articles on the law. However they do acknowledge his battle has legal grounds.

"A lawsuit is the most civilized way of determining the price of a human life in a state that proved unable to protect its citizens from an act of terrorism," former justice minister Pavel Krasheninnikov said.

Born in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, Trunov launched his practice less than two years ago, having graduated from Krasnodar Law Institute as recently as 1998.

He had initially embarked on a career in the agro-food industry, having written a dissertation in 1993 on the economy and planning.

But he found himself ensnared in a real estate scandal that saw him sentenced to six years in prison and his wife, assistant to a Moscow prosecutor, sacked.

"I spent three and a half years behind bars, some of that time mixed in with men sentenced to death at Butyrka prison. My life at that time wasn't worth a button.

"Later it was proved to be a set-up, and the judge and the prosecutor who illegally opened the case were suspended. I won some 20,000 dollars in damages," he added.

It was an experience that marked him for life, driving him to study law and now giving him the toughness needed to withstand the pressures of a high-profile legal action that could drag on for several months.

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