Advocates treat reduction of verdicts for attack on Nalchik as insignificant

As a result of consideration of appeals, the maximum reduction of the prison term made only 1.5 years, said the advocates of the convicts for the attack on Nalchik.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today the Judicial Chamber for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia has refused to abolish the life sentences to five figurants in the case of the attack on Nalchik, while reducing verdicts to other figurants.

The Chamber has upheld life imprisonment for Eduard Mironov, Anzor Mashukov, Murat Bapinaev, Aslan Kuchmenov and Rasul Kudaev; the latter was recognized as a political prisoner by the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

The SC has upheld the verdicts against those defendants who have already served their sentences. The prosecution of Sergey Kaziev has been stopped in connection with his death.

According to advocates, the convicts, sentenced to 12-13 years in prison, "may soon be released under the conditional early relief (CER)." "In particular, I'm going to petition for the CER of my client Anuar Goov his client," said the advocate Rita Gelyaeva.

Overall, in her opinion, the SC Chamber "has got rather deeply into the case," while "just slightly mitigating the punishment."

In her turn, her colleague Lyusya Shorova noted that the appeal instance "had in fact upheld the harsh sentence on the case of the attack on Nalchik." She added that "the convicts, if desired, may appeal against this decision at the supervisory instance."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.