Leo Rokhlin murder case put off indefinitely

The Narofominsk court has put off indefinitely hearings on the murder case of General Leo Rokhlin, reports the defendant Tamara Rokhlina's lawyer Anatoly Kucherenya. He noted that the reason for this postponement is the disease of Rokhlina's son Igor Rokhlin, adding that the date of the next hearings is to be fixed on May 31. A trial on this case was launched on December 3, 2001 to be put off on November 15, 2002 to conduct forensic examination of the state of health of the defendant Tamara Rokhlina, the wife of the killed general, at the request of the party for prosecution.

Out-patient examination conducted by the Serbsky forensic psychiatry institute in Moscow showed that at the moment of committing the alleged crime Rokhlina had been quite responsible, reported Rokhlina's lawyer Anatoly Kucherenya.

On April 22, 2003, the court was to read out the results of the examination, but the hearings were suspended because of the deterioration of Rokhlina's health-she was hospitalised from the courtroom with heart attack and high tension.

In October, 2003, Rokhlina was delivered to the Sklifosofsky hospital's toxic ward with food poisoning diagnosis. According to her lawyer, she had taken in 40-50 pills of some drug.

It is the second trial on the case of Rokhlina who was sentenced on November 16, 200, as a result of the first one, to eight years in prison. She had then received a verdict of guilty of her husband's murder "on the grounds of hostile relations". Then, a higher court-the Moscow regional court-commuted her sentence to four years in prison. In the summer of 2001, the verdict of guilty was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Russia that satisfied the lawyers' appeal for review.

By the ruling of the Supreme Court, Rokhlina's case has been taken for review to the Narofominsky city court with another composition while Rokhlina has been released from custody for the time of hearings.

The defendant does not plead guilty, claiming that her husband was killed by three obscure masked men.

Leo Rokhlin, the head of the Movement In Support of the Army, was assassinated with a shot on the head in the early hours of July 3, 1998 in his Klokovo country-house, Narofominsk district, Moscow region.