Chechnya: news | arguments | facts
23 March 2007 Jury passes guilty verdict on Grozny-Moscow train blowup in 2005
A jury has passed a guilty verdict in the 2005 Grozny-Moscow train blowup case, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom Wednesday.
On June 12, 2005, an improvised bomb equivalent to three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of TNT was set off 153 kilometers (95 miles) south of Moscow as a train en route from Grozny, the capital of the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, to Moscow passed by.
Forty-two people required medical attention, and five of them, including a child, were hospitalized.
"The judges decided that the investigation has proved the defendants' involvement in the crimes they are charged with," the court ruling said.
The lawyer of a defendant said 10 of the 12 jury members voted for a guilty verdict.
The defendants have been found guilty on all charges, including terrorism, but the judges decided they deserve leniency.
The Moscow Region Court will discuss the verdict April 2, and will pass a sentence after the prosecutor says what punishment he believes adequate.
The defendants - Vladimir Vlasov, a businessman, and Mikhail Klevachev, a construction company employee - were charged with terrorism and attempting to kill two or more people on motives of race or religious hatred. They have not admitted their guilt.
In December 2006, a Moscow Region court dismissed the jury in the case of the train-derailing blast after it passed a not guilty verdict.
"Nine of the jury voted for acquittal, and three for the guilty verdict," jurywoman Alexandra Salamatina said then.
But the court dismissed the jury after the verdict was read, upholding the prosecutor's contention that it was pressured.
The prosecutor said some on the jury spoke with lawyers before the final court session, but jury members said in turn that prosecutors tried to find fault with them as a reason for their dismissal.
Salamatina said: "The court has already made a decision that the defendants are guilty, and if the next jury acquits them, they will be dismissed, too."
She said prosecutors' arguments are so vague that it is not necessary to be a lawyer to understand that the case has been fabricated.
After the acquittal, the Moscow Region Court dismissed the jury and ordered repeat hearings.
RIA Novosti
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23 March 2007 Militant leader killed in Daghestan special operation - police
A militant leader was killed Friday in a special operation in Daghestan in southern Russia, local police said.
Rustam Bashayev, 28, was on the federal wanted list for committing several acts of terrorism on the territory of Daghestan and Chechnya. He was a close relative of Suleiman Elmurzayev, a field commander of the so-called Chechen Central Front, and was responsible for the financing of militant groups in various districts of Chechnya and Daghestan.
Local authorities have not yet disclosed the details of the operation.
RIA Novosti
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23 March 2007 Chechnya's Kadyrov against power separation agreement with govt
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said Wednesday he is against signing of an agreement on the separation of powers between the central government and his North Caucasus republic.
"The agreement is not necessary," Kadyrov said. "We propose to forget about this agreement. I am against its signing."
Last month, the Russian parliament's upper house rejected a similar agreement between the central government and the Volga area republic of Tatarstan.
The agreement stipulated that the federal government and Tatarstan's Cabinet negotiate a deal allowing Tatar authorities to have a greater say in decisions involving economic, environmental, cultural and other regional issues.
The document also guaranteed that a leader of Tatarstan, whose candidacy is proposed by the Russian president, must speak the Tatar language in addition to Russian. The republic would also have the right to issue internal identification papers, with an insert in Tatar.
RIA Novosti
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