Rally in Grozny against suspended sentence for KorgunBy Ruslan Isayev
GROZNY, Chechnya – A rally was held in central Grozny today to protest the three-year suspended sentence handed down on February 7 to Russian Interior Ministry troops Lieutenant Colonel Aleksei Korgun, who a year ago ordered his men to open fire on three Chechen women, killing one of them and wounding the other two.
Around a hundred people from various human rights organizations and NGOs in Chechnya took part in the rally. Many of the participants held posters demanding a judicial review of the verdict and the passing of a less lenient sentence. Those who took part intend to address this demand in an appeal to the appropriate authorities.
Said-Emin Dzhabrailov, head of the Public Chamber of the Chechen Republic, believes that things of this kind should not go on being repeated: "Justice should not be selective, but fair, and that is why we don’t agree with the Grozny military garrison court’s decision," he said.
One participant, Luiza Ayubova, told Prague Watchdog’s correspondent that by issuing such a sentence the court was sanctioning and encouraging the continued killing of civilians by soldiers.
On March 24 2007 a reconnaissance squad conducting checks of the terrain in the vicinity of the village of Urdyukhoy in Chechnya’s Itum-Kalinsky district opened fire on a group of local women who were picking wild garlic [cheremsha] in the forest. As a result, one of the women was killed and two others were seriously wounded. The Russian soldiers said that the women had been mistaken for guerrillas.
At his trial Korgun expressed remorse and asked the victims’ relatives for forgiveness.
(Translation by DM) (T) RELATED ARTICLES:
· Human rights defenders outraged by Korgun verdict (Chechnya.gov.ru, 15.2.2008)
· The Russian military in Kadyrov's Chechnya (PW, 23.4.2007)
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