21:37, 18 September 2007

Advocates demand to return the case on Kondopoga fight back to prosecutor's office

At the process on the criminal case about the fight in the city of Kondopoga that had provoked mass disorders, the advocates of Chechen defendants have again demanded to return the case back to the prosecutor's office.

The lawyers state that the translation of the materials of the case into the Chechen language does not correspond to the Russian originals, the RIA "Novosti" reports with reference to Andrei Vorobyov, assistant of the Chairman of the Supreme Court.

"The defence has presented a new expert's judgement to the Court, which affirms that the four pages of the indictment in the Chechen language contain more than 40 mismatches with the Russian original," Mr Vorobyov said in his comments on the outcomes of the Tuesday's court session that considered the criminal case.

We remind you also that the Court of the Karelian city of Kondopoga refused to stop the criminal case against the former on duty officer of the Kondopoga City Interior Department (GOVD) Major Alexei Kostin, accused of negligence in connection with interethnic-motivated mass disorders in the city in 2006.