The term of custody for the defendants on the case of an attack at Nalchik in 2005 prolonged

Today the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria at a trial on the case of an attack at Nalchik on October, 13, 2005, prolonged the custody term for the defendants for three more months. For two of the defendants who had been released on their own recognizance this preventive punishment remained the same.

Explaining its position on the preventive punishment the prosecuting party as it had done before insisted on the necessity of prolongation of custody term for the defendants “taking into account the gravity of the crime they committed” and their “special hazard” for the community and also for the reason that the circumstances conditioning selection of custody as form of preventive punishment for them had not changed.

Some of the defense attorneys solicited for alteration of their clients’ preventive punishment for release on their own recognizance or house arrest. The attorneys pleaded the state of their clients’ health for many of them needed serious treatment. The attorneys also declared that episodes of using force against people in detention in the investigative isolation ward had become more frequent.

In spite of this, the court prolonged the custody term for 56 defendants for three more months.