LAWYER DEMANDS TO ACQUIT GENERAL ROKHLIN’S WIFE

Anatoli Kucherena, Tamara Rokhlina’s lawyer, demanded yesterday that his client be acquitted. Speaking at yesterday’s court hearings which were held behind closed doors, Mr. Kucherena insisted that the prosecution failed after a month of proceedings to prove that it was Mrs. Rokhlina who pulled the trigger at his husband’s temple in the night of July 3d, 1998. In Mr. Kucherena’s words, General Rokhlin’s guards, Mr. Pleskachev and Mr. Sheldeshov who are referred to as “main witnesses” in the case constantly get muddled with their testimony. At that, they claim they did hot heard the sounds of the two shots and did not see the murderers. Basing on conjectures, you cannot decide on one’s fate, Mr. Kucherena emphasized. In the meantime, the prosecutor demands that Mrs. Rokhlina be imprisoned for 10 years. In his version, General Rokhlin organizing his rallies against the President endangered his close ones, so Tamara snatched at the pistol.