Russian Court Dismisses Former Hostages' Suits

Victims of the hostage crisis in Moscow still struggle for compensation

Czech cinematographers are going to make a movie about the recent hostage crisis in Moscow. Meanwhile, the scandal with former hostages continues in Russia, even foreign citizens have already had an opportunity to estimate the "justice" of the law.

The Prague-based film studio Barrandov is going to make a movie called The Russian Theatre. The plot of the movie is be based on tragic events that took place in the Moscow music theatre in the autumn of the past year, Radio Prague reported. The work on the movie will start in Prague at the end of the current year. Czech director Ivan Zacharias has signed up to direct the movie. Zacharias is known as a director of commercial ads, he has two Gold Lion awards of the Cannes Film Festival. The work on The Russian Theatre will be his debut in cinema. For the time being, it is not known, who is going to play the main part in the new motion picture.

Speaking about real former hostages of the Moscow music theatre, they still try to make Russian officials listen to them. The court has been dismissing their suits one after another. Former hostages have filed 61 lawsuits, which total about $60 million. The court has already dismissed 23 suits, the same will most likely happen to other claims too.

The Russian Finance Ministry, the defendant on the case, has not acknowledged foreign citizens' claims, who had suffered as a result of the Moscow hostage crisis.  Spokespeople for the ministry released a statement about it at preliminary hearings at Moscow's Basmanny Court on June 11th. Interfax reported, ministerial officials refused to conclude an amicable agreement with claimants  - such a suggestion had been put forward by their lawyer. The total sum of the suits to compensate moral and material damage makes up eight million dollars.

Lawyer Lyudmila Trunova, who represents claimants' interests, stated that Oleg Zhyrov, a citizen of the Netherlands, had lost his wife as a result of the siege. Oleg Zhyrov sued the Russian government on Wednesday. Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the following foreign citizens: Lyubov Burban - the USA, Yevgeny Yuftagev - Ukraine, Svetlana Gubareva - Kazakhstan. All these people have lost their relatives as a result of the act of terrorism in the Moscow music theatre. The list of the victims includes a 13-year-old girl and her father, an American citizen.