Two defendants in Nalchik attack case complain to Russia's Constitutional Court

Rasul Kudaev and Azret Shavaev, defendants in the case dealing with events in Nalchik on October 13, 2005, and their advocates Magomed Abubakarov and Tatiana Psomiadi have addressed their complaint to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on violation of the defendants' constitutional rights.

The complaint runs that Rasul Kudaev and Azret Shavaev are applying, on the basis of the Constitution of Russia, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation for defence against unjustified restriction of their right to have their criminal case considered by the court with participation of a board of jurymen, as stipulated by part two, Article 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The complaint emphasizes that deprivation of the defendants of the rights to have their criminal case considered by the court with participation of jurymen is contradictory to the Constitution.

In the opinion of the authors of the complaint, the defendants' rights are also breached by the fact that the new law that forbids consideration by a jury of terrorist crimes has no transition provisions, relating the legal relations that have arisen before adoption of this law and were not over by the moment it came into force.