A new judge has been appointed at the North Caucasian military court to preside over the trial of the army officer Yuri Budanov, charged with murdering Chechen girl Elsa Kungayeva. Judge Vladimir Bukreyev has been following the colonel's trial from the very start and will not need much time to familiarize himself with the numerous volumes of case files. But the date for re-trial will not be set until after March 23, when Chechnya is to adopt its new constitution.

The former commander of the 160th tank regiment Colonel Yuri Budanov stands accused of abducting and murdering 18-year-old Elsa Kungayeva, a resident of the Chechen village Tangi-Chu, in March 2000. The court hearings into the colonel's case began in February 2001. Twice the court ordered Budanov to undergo additional psychological and psychiatric tests. Both examinations were conducted at the Serbsky Institute in Moscow. And in both cases the experts ruled the officer was temporarily insane at the moment of committing the murder, saying he could not fully understand the social danger of his actions and was not able to control them. On December 31, 2002 the military court found Budanov not criminally responsible for Kungayeva's murder and ordered him to undergo compulsory medical treatment. The ruling was challenged by the lawyer representing the aggrieved party and by the prosecutors. At the end of February the Supreme Court of Russia overturned it and sent Budanov's case for re-trial.

On Thursday morning the file case of Yuri Budanov was delivered to Rostov-on-Don from Moscow where it had been examined by the military board of judges of the Supreme Court.

At the end of February the Supreme Court ruled that the decision of the North-Caucasian military court was ''unfounded, and passed in violation of material and procedural law''. The highest court instance paid attention to the numerous violations and obvious absurdities in the case.

According to the documents gathered by investigators, covering the period October 1999 – March 2000, the colonel ''successfully commanded the regiment entrusted to him, took part in combat operations, moved up the carrier ladder, and behaved quite adequately''.

At the same time, the Rostov-on-Don court took the Serbsky experts' conclusions for granted and ruled that Budanov ''could not fully understand the de-facto nature and social danger of his actions and was unable to control them''.

Judges in Moscow failed to understand how a person could successfully command his regiment and at the same time not be able to understand the danger of his actions. The Supreme Court also paid attention to other procedural violations and satisfied, firstly, the request of the girl's parents, who doubted the impartiality of the Serbsky experts, and secondly, the protest lodged by the state prosecutor who disagreed with the experts' assessment of the colonel's mental health.

The Supreme Court ruled that Yuri Budanov must face re-trial in the same court in Rostov-on-Don, but a new judge should be appointed to hear his case. The Chechen lawyer Abdulla Khamzayev will be pleased with the decision, because he had repeatedly contested Judge Viktor Kostin's impartiality and asked the court to replace him. All those earlier requests were rejected.

On Thursday evening an aide to the chairman of the Rostov-on-Don court, Vitaly Gorobets, said that Vladimir Bukreyev had been appointed the new judge for Budanov's trial. According to Golovanov, Bukreyev has already begun studying the case files. As soon as he is finished, a date for the new hearing will be set.

It is worth pointing out that Bukreyev is not altogether unconnected to Budanov's case: being the deputy chairman of the North-Caucasian military court, he has been following Budanov's trial from the very beginning. However, being a judge, he never talked to the press, and never shared his assessments.

It is also worth noting that on Thursday Budanov's defence lawyer Anatoly Mukhin complained that only politics had been left in the proceedings. Indeed, one cannot help noticing that the lenient verdict in Budanov's case was overturned just before the constitutional referendum, with the Chechen authorities perceiving
the Supreme Court's ruling as campaign stunt in time for the referendum.

Undoubtedly, Budanov's case will be heard soon, but not until after the referendum is held. What Budanov's fate will be is hard to tell. Many things now depend on how enthusiastically the Chechens adopt their new constitution. Most likely, the court will again order the colonel to undergo psychiatric tests. Incidentally, a week ago the press-service of the Serbsky Institute did not rule out that Budanov may soon become one of its patients, yet again.

14 March 16:13 Gazeta ru