16:27, 28 August 2008

Supreme Court upholds verdict to officers convicted for execution of peaceful residents of Chechnya

Today, the Supreme Court of Russia has upheld the guilty verdict to Sergey Arakcheev and Evgeniy Khudyakov, former officers of internal troops, sentenced to 15 and 17 years of imprisonment accordingly for execution of peaceful residents in Chechnya.

Thus, the Court has rejected the cassation complaints lodged by the defendants and their advocates with a demand to cancel the verdict.

In their cassation complaints, the advocates wrote that at the trial the court had disregarded the records in the logbook of transport registration and excerpts from the warfare registration logbook of January 15, 2003 (the day of the assassination), which evidence, in the opinion of the defence, the defendants' alibi. Besides, as the advocates specified, the judge had groundlessly based his verdict on evidences of some witnesses who gave them while being suspects themselves.