#6337
[Second Issue of the Day]
#3
Russia Court Delays Officer's Verdict
July 3, 2002
By SERGEI VENYAVSKY
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - The judge presiding over the first public trial of a Russian military officer charged with crimes against Chechen civilians has postponed the verdict, saying the court had to consider the case further and that the suspect had to undergo a third psychiatric evaluation.
Col. Yuri Budanov has admitted strangling 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva two years ago, but says he killed her in a rage while interrogating her because he thought she was a rebel sniper. Kungayeva's family denies the accusation, and says she was dragged from her home at night, raped and murdered during a drunken rampage by soldiers.
Budanov has been evaluated twice by psychiatrists. The first time, he was found sane, but the doctors who conducted the second examination found him insane at the time of the killing.
Judge Viktor Kostin on Tuesday said he had requested an additional court inquiry before making a ruling, and he ordered a new psychiatric examination. He adjourned the trial until Wednesday.
``I'm very glad the court made such a decision,'' the victim's lawyer, Abdulla Khamzayev, said.
The suspect's lawyers were livid, and said Budanov was desperate for a verdict - any verdict - after repeated delays in the 18-month-old trial.
``He is in a critical moral condition, his nerves and blood pressure are at their limits,'' defense lawyer Anatoly Mukhin said. ``He said, 'Let them convict me, I'll be as silent as a fish.'''
Budanov's wife Svetlana and oldest son, 15-year-old Valery, came to the trial from Ukraine on Tuesday expecting a verdict, and were distressed when none came.
Russians nationwide have followed the trial, seen as a crucial precedent amid widespread accusations of abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya that human rights groups say are largely ignored.
The prosecutor in the case, Sergei Nazarov, recommended that Budanov be sentenced to three years in prison but be made eligible for immediate amnesty. Even Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov objected that Budanov was being prosecuted too leniently.
Nazarov was replaced Monday, the day before the verdict was scheduled, by a new prosecutor who recommended some changes in the charges. The new prosecutor, Col. Vladimir Milovanov, refused to reveal the changes to reporters.
``I can only say that there are differences of opinion about the work that Nazarov conducted,'' Milovanov said Tuesday.
Back to the Top Next Article
- Back to the Top -