Cassation complaint in Estemirova's case returned to first instance court

After consideration by the Supreme Court (SC) of Chechnya of the cassation complaint lodged by Svetlana Estemirova, sister of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the case was remitted to the first instance court for removal of the existing procedural deficiencies.

"In the SC's opinion, the procedural shortcomings are related to the fact that I had been late to submit the cassation complaint (according to the Russian Civil Procedure Code, a complaint shall be filed within ten days, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"). It is not so, which is confirmed by the postal documents that are in my hands and other evidences. Moreover, the first instance court had considered it and had no claims as to the filing date," explained Roman Karpinskiy, one of the advocates.

The essence of the advocates' complaint, filed in August 2010 to the Leninskiy Court of Vladikavkaz is that the bodies of inquiry had refused to present the materials related to check of the version of relation of the persons involved in public execution of the kidnapped Rizvan Albekov to the murder of Natalia Estemirova.

Natalia had dealt with this execution in her last days and told about it in her last interview that she gave to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"Natalia's relatives believe that this version, which had been rejected by the investigation, requires a more thorough check, because it looks most trustworthy. However, the official version of the inquiry, which is now investigated, assumes involvement of illegal armed formations (IAFs) in Estemirova's murder," said the lawyer.

Initially, as Mr Karpinskiy has noted, his request to receive and study the documents was rejected on the grounds that, according to the criminal procedural legislation, presentation of all materials to the suffered party is only possible after the end of the trial.

"We now have the situation, when inspectors are working with only one version, finding the rest of them unjustified. If their version turns out wrong, for whatever reason and finds no proofs, quite a lot of time will be lost. We - the suffered party - have no chances now in any way to influence the investigation," the lawyer has added.

In Mr Karpinskiy's opinion, the consideration of the complaint is deliberately protracted; he treated these events as nonsense.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the press service of the Supreme Court of Chechnya that the court session was postponed till December 22; however, they could not clarify the reasons.

According to Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Committee "Civic Assistance", it is absolutely obvious that they just do not want to consider the issue of delivering documents for examination.

"Most probably, it could be learnt from the materials that the version, which I find quite plausible, is of no interest to the inspectors. The reasons are obvious - soon after the murder, President of Russia said that the primitive version about involvement of the high-ranking officials of the Chechen Republic in Natalia Estemirova's murder was unacceptable for the Russian authorities," Ms Gannushkina said.