Trial of the colonel, killed a Chechen girl, goes on

Hearing of the case of Colonel Yury Budanov, accused of murder of Chechen girl Elza Kungayeva, is going on in Rostov-na-Donu. After three other children of Kungayev’s family are interrogated, the court will announce a break till May 7 in connection with forthcoming holidays. As a matter of fact, the breaks in this trial are usual things. It is clear that everything to protract the trial is being done. The recent events are evidence of it. For example, in the course of the investigation, Elza’s brother Khavadzhi, 15, said that he has not seen the faces of the service-men, who took the girl away. At the trial Khavadzhi said another thing. He even witnessed that he had seen Budanov tormenting the girl. Immediately after it Kungayevs’ layers said that the interrogation had been unfortunate. Thus nobody thinks that this trial will end soon. The side of the murdered girl does it best to protract the hearing. Besides, somebody helps to Kungayeva’s parents. However it is still unknown who does it. The day before an expert, who carried out the exhumation of Elza’s body, was summoned to court. As a matter of fact, the girl parents showed a document, saying that their daughter had been raped. The paper was signed by the expert. Later on another document, signed by the same expert, showed up. This paper denied the fact of the rape. According to experts, Kungayevs “obtained” a draft record of the act of the exhumation, which had been written before the laboratory examinations. It is an interesting question: by what means have they obtained it? Sergey Snegov