SC of Kabardino-Balkaria cancels trying attack on Nalchik by jury

The Supreme Court (SC) of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) has upheld the petition lodged by Olga Chibinyova, head of the group of accuser, asking to cancel trial by jury of the criminal case on events in Nalchik on October 13, 2005. The Court ruled to send the case to the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria for appointing a panel of three professional judges to consider the case.

"Advocates want to appeal against the ruling to the Supreme Court of Russia," lawyer Magomed Abubakarov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

On the other hand, Rasul Kudaev, one of the defendants in the case, sent an application to Yuri Chaika, General Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, "about a crime committed by the group of accusers headed by Olga Chibinyova."

The application runs that "with the aim to disrupt consideration by the Supreme Court of the KBR of a criminal case on an especially grave crime and to mislead the body of justice..., by abuse of service position, the accusation party headed by public prosecutor Chibinyova, O. P., presented a certificate to the court containing knowingly false information and certified by signatures of the then deceased employees of the Scientific Research Institute for Humanitarian Studies Messrs Mambetov, G. Kh., Mafedzov, S. Kh., and Maksidov, A. A., and of Senior Scientific Worker of the Ethnology Division Asanov, Yu. N."

We remind you that on December 9, 2008, Olga Chibinyova, head of the group of state accusers, lodged a repeated petition on challenging all the jurymen-residents of Kabardino-Balkaria "because of their direct or indirect personal interest in the outcome of the suit" and delivery of the case to the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Russia "for making decision of changing the territorial jurisdiction."

In her petition Ms Chibinyova referred to the study performed by employees of the Institute of Humanitarian Studies according to which 53 percent of candidates for the jury have relative relations either with the 201 persons who defeated the attack on Nalchik or with the 58 militants who attacked the capital - perished and alive.

On October 6, at the court session, the above facts were rejected, and the advocates called it "an obvious attempt to mislead the court" and asked to pass a special ruling against the state accusers.

It was also revealed that at the moment of signing the certificate on the above studies, three out of four signatories had already died, and the fourth one gave a written explanation that he had never participated in any study of this sort.

The answer received by defendant Rasul Kudaev from the Russian State Office of Public Prosecutor runs that "the arguments in support of falsification of the certificate of the Institute of Humanitarian Studies under the Government of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic are groundless," and the petition on challenging candidates for the jury is lawful.