Dead Chechen Girl's Family to Appeal Court Verdict
Reuters
MOSCOW - The relatives of a Chechen woman strangled by a senior Russian officer
are to appeal a military court ruling that he was insane when he killed
her, their lawyer told Reuters on Saturday.
Abdul Khamzayev said the ruling was tantamount to an acquittal of Yuri Budanov,
the only senior officer to be tried for crimes against civilians since Russian
forces re-entered separatist Chechnya in 1999.
Budanov strangled Elza Kungayeva, an 18-year-old he accused of being a rebel
sniper, during interrogation at a military base. Last week a military court
cleared him of criminal responsibility, ruling he was temporarily insane
and ordering psychiatric treatment.
"The case dragged on for nearly two years. It lasted this long not because
it was complex and not because the victims were complicating things, but
because it took them that long to make a fake document saying he was insane,"
Khamzayev told Reuters.
Khamzayev said Budanov had been fully aware of what he was doing and should
pay the price: "Any ordinary person would consider him a criminal, even though
the judge declared him insane," he said.
Russian liberals and human rights groups condemned last week's court decision,
saying it would allow widespread reports of abuses by Russian troops to go
unpunished.
Budanov was arrested in March 2000, on the eve of a visit to Chechnya by
U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson, a move seen as an attempt by Moscow
to demonstrate a tough line on lawless troops in Chechnya and deflect criticism
of rights abuses.
But within a year, as the military continued to suffer daily losses to rebel
attacks, the mood had changed and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, a close
political ally of President Vladimir Putin, expressed sympathy for Budanov's
plight.
When interviewed by Reuters television after the court verdict Visa Kungayev,
Elza's father, said he wanted to find experts to help him overturn the verdict.
"We will take this to the supreme court and, I think, there they will find
the truth," he said. "I don't think that there could be insane officers in
the Russian army."
"He remembers everything. If he is so clever, how could he be insane?"