Moscow music theatre victims still battle with city authorities for money

Relatives of the victims killed in a Dubrovka terror act are going to initiate a new criminal procedure. Co-chairwoman of the organization protecting the victims of Nord-Ost, Tatyana Karpova, told “Ekho Moskvy” that this case is against the city authorities.

Photo: Moscow music theatre victims still battle with city authorities for money

Karpova explained that she has unquestionable evidence of the capital officials’ fault. October 23 will be the fourth anniversary since the day on which the theatrical center on Dubrovka was captured by the terrorists.

Karpova refused to elaborate saying that she does not wish jeopardize the brand-new undertaking.

She also said that the surviving victims and relatives of the ones killed were forced to lead the investigation on their own because since December 2003 only one investigating officer had been assigned to the case, while the “tragedy of such scale cannot possibly be examined by a single specialist no matter how talented he is.”

According to Karpova the complaining party will have to appeal to the foreign law-enforcement agencies because the “Russian authorities respond with mere rejections and excuses.”

“Nord-Ost” musical’s creators continue their hope to re-open the show. The day before the tragedy’s anniversary musical’s press-secretary Darya Morgunova told Interfax that the sponsors did not dare to offer their support for the infamous production.

Right after the terrorist act in October 2002 the creators made an attempt to keep performing “Nord-Ost” but their efforts shortly failed.

The case’s term could go on until the prosecutors verify all the existing theories, question all the witnesses and inspect all the evidence, attorney Igor Trunov told Interfax.

Trunov added that fours years after the death of kidnapped victims in Dubrovka’s theatrical center Moscow courts still have appeals from the victims.

“The total amount of these appeals comes from 82-86 complainers. The court officials looked at 62 of them. Out of those 41 were taken care of, including the ones from 19 orphans. Appeals dealing with moral and psychological damage were all rejected without exception,” the attorney said.

According to Trunov the largest monetary compensation paid at one time equaled 75467 (approximately $3,000) rubles while the smallest equaled 2710 rubles (approximately $100).

He mentioned that in the dealings with damage compensations there was no uniform practice. “Compensating foreign citizens who suffered from the terrorist act is covered in the Russian law. However, Basmanniy court of Moscow rejected six of the foreign citizens appealing for compensation in this case.”

Source: agencies

Translated by Natalia Vysotskaya
Pravda.ru