Victims of hostage crisis at Dubrovka theatre to sue Moscow authorities

Former hostages and relatives of victims of the 2002 hostage crisis at the Dubrovka theater in Moscow will file a plea with the city prosecutor's office on Monday for opening a criminal case on the city government financial department's refusal to carry out a Tverskoy court ruling on the payment of compensation to them, announced their lawyer Igor Trunov. "A statement by the Moscow mayor's spokesman Sergey Tsoy expresses the city government's intent to redirect the victims' demands to the federal government which is a crime under article 315 of the criminal code - repeated non-fulfillment of court rulings," Mr Trunov said. He reminded that the Tverskoy court had passed several rulings to satisfy the claims of the victims and their relatives for damages. On February 9, 62 court writs concerning 28 persons were submitted to the city's financial department. "The law stipulates that payments must be made no later than 10 days after the receipt of documents. Meanwhile, two months have gone by and not a single court writ has been carried out," the lawyer said. 130 persons died and over 700 were injured in the hostage crisis.