Salman Raduyev to serve life sentence

Today, the Russian Supreme Court rejected an appeal to change the sentence of Chechen militant Salman Raduyev and three accomplices. Thus, the Raduyev’s appeal was rejected. The accused were not present during the court hearing, though a television communication was established with the Moscow prison where the criminals are being kept.

Earlier, the Dagestani Supreme Court sentenced Raduyev to life imprisonment, and his accomplices to 5-15 years of imprisonment. Salman Raduyev was charged with the organization of terrorit attacks in the settlements of Kizlyar and Pervomayski in Dagestan (January of 1996), explosion of Pyatigorsk railway (1997), cruel assassinations, hostage taking, and the organization of assassination of civilians and servicemen. The charges cover more than ten items of the RF Criminal Code.

The defence believes that there is no corpus delicti in the actions of Raduyev, as they were committed during a war “between two sovereign states, the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.” In accordance with the international resolutions (PACE resolution, the Geneva conventions of 1949), Raduyev was a combatant (participant of an armed conflict), and, consequently, he enjoys the rights of a prisoner of war, who can not be prosecuted. Raduyev himself thinks a fifteen-year imprisonment would be enough for him.

However, the Russian Supreme Court is of a different opinion.

The matter is that Russia does not recognize the notion “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria”; there is Chechen Republic, a federation subject and a part of Russia’s structure. This means that “the soldier of the Ichkeria standing army” will have to serve a life sentence.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Photo by TV6

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/11/39590.html