Russia finally closed one of the most brutal and embarrassing episodes of its ongoing conflict in Chechnya on Friday when a colonel was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the kidnap and murder of an 18-year-old Chechen woman.
Colonel Yuri Budanov was found guilty by a military court in the southern city of Rostov on Don and was stripped of his military rank and awards. On being sentenced, Budanov removed the cotton plugs that had blanked out proceedings in court for the last few days of the trial. The 40-year-old soldier had to be escorted from the courtroom during this second trial owing to frequent outbursts.
Budanov was the first and most senior Russian soldier to go on trial for human-rights abuses committed by federal troops in the war-torn republic.
The family of Elza Kungayeva, the Chechen teenager whom Budanov and his troops abducted, say their daughter had been raped during a drunken rampage by Russian troops. This charge was excluded from the trial, and denied by Budanov. The original trial descended into farce when the state prosecutor dropped the murder charge and argued Budanov should be freed under an amnesty because of his record of valorous service.
The 10-year sentence is less than the 12 years sought by the state prosecutor and the 15 years urged by the family. The court said Budanov's physical condition, his two dependent children and his expression of guilt immediately after the killing helped to lessen the sentence. It added that the three years he had already served would count towards his sentence. He also has to pay the equivalent of US$7,000 to the girl's family for "moral damages."
The relatively light term will be seen as a partial concession to military hardliners who sympathize with Budanov's claim that he was "in a fit of rage" when he strangled the woman, brought on by years of hard service in the brutal Chechen conflict. He has admitted the killing, saying he thought the teenager was a sniper bent on attacking his men. He later ordered them to bury her body.
The case has become a notorious test of Russia's tolerance of the abuses committed daily by its troops in Chechnya. President Vladimir Putin's hardline spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, pandered to public opinion last December by saying Budanov should be severely punished.
Human-rights groups said the sentencing was too little, too late. Alexander Petrov, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Moscow office, said: "The most important point is that the courts have finally made a decision. But the number of human-rights violations going on right now in Chechnya runs into the thousands. This is an exceptional case where there has actually been an investigation, hearings and a court sentencing."
Yesterday's ruling ends a two-year saga of court rulings and psychiatric reports. The court found that Budanov was sane at the time of the murder in March 2000.
This overturned last December's psychiatric report which declared him to have been "temporarily insane" at the time of the killing, and therefore not criminally liable for the murder.
After public outcry at the self-confessed killer being "let off," the supreme court in February ordered the case be sent back for retrial in a military court in Rostov on Don, considered a potentially more sympathetic environment.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
RSS