President of Chechnya is satisfied with SC ruling on "Ulman's case"

Alu Alkhanov, President of Chechnya, has welcomed the ruling of the RF Supreme Court presidium to the effect that the "Ulman's case" will be considered by a panel of three professional judges and not by a jury, reports "Interfax."

"The presidium has returned the case for a review from the stage of preliminary hearing. Thus, it will be considered by three professional judges and not by a jury as previously," related earlier an RF Supreme Court representative.

The court representative has explained that it is at the stage of preliminary hearing that the accused select what court is going to consider their criminal case: the jury court, a single judge or three professional judges, reports the "Novosti" news agency.

"When the military panel reversed the acquittals on the "Ulman's case " the case was returned to the North Caucasus military tribunal from the stage of considering the case on its merits, that is, it was reconsidered by a panel of "public assessors," reminded the interlocutor of the agency.

Four military servicemen, i.e. captain Eduard Ulman, Major Alexei Perelevskiy, lieutenant Alexander Kalaganskiy and Ensign Vladimir Voevodin are charged with murder and abuse of powers. According to the investigation, in January 2002, in the course of fulfilling a military task in the vicinity of the Dai village of Shatoi district, they killed six local residents.

The "Ulman's case" has already been considered twice by a jury court and its two acquittals have been reversed twice. Recently the Constitutional Court of Russia has decided that the cases against military servicemen accused of capital crimes on the territory of Chechnya must be considered by professional judges rather than by juries.