Insanity verdict in war crimes trial angers Chechens

A Russian colonel who strangled a teenager in Chechnya was pronounced insane and absolved of criminal responsibility by a court yesterday, angering critics of the military.

Col Yuri Budanov, who faced up to 12 years in jail, was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

Budanov admitted strangling Heda Kungayeva, a Chechen woman aged 18. He said he suspected her of being a rebel sniper who had killed some of his comrades and that he was in a rage during her interrogation.

But Kungayeva's family said she was dragged from her home at night, raped and murdered during a drunken rampage by soldiers.

Budanov was the first Russian military officer to be charged with abuses in Chechnya, where a war with separatist rebels is in its fourth year. Chechens and human rights groups say military abuses against civilians including summary killings, rapes and looting are widespread.

The trial was regarded as an indication of whether the military would clamp down on offences, which have alienated Chechens and undermined the Kremlin's efforts to build trust in the war-ravaged republic.

The verdict "will have very bad consequences in Chechnya, further undermining the trust of the Chechen people" said Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of Civic Assistance, a group that helps Chechen refugees. "The Russian army today is an independent political force, as it was in the darkest periods of our history," she said. "That may have catastrophic consequences."

Military authorities initially accused Budanov of rape and murder, but he was officially charged with murder and abduction. During the trial, psychiatrists made four evaluations of Budanov's health. The first team ruled he was sane, the second ruling was never made public and the two most recent examinations concluded he was temporarily insane at the time of the murder.

Russian nationalists and many military officers rallied behind Budanov. About 50 activists from Russian National Unity, an ultranationalist group, wearing black armbands with the group's insignia, stood outside the court.

In Moscow, Nikolai Bezborodov, a pro-Kremlin Russian legislator, said Budanov's case proved the legal pitfalls for servicemen trying to do their duty in Chechnya. He said soldiers who stopped suspected rebels for an identity check had "no guarantee that a prosecutor with handcuffs will not show up at their door in the morning saying they have murdered a Russian citizen".

Also on trial was Lieutenant Ivan Fyodorov, who was found guilty yesterday of abuse of authority for participating in the beating with Budanov of another officer. He was sentenced to three years in jail, but was expected to be freed under an amnesty for people sentenced to three years or less. (AP)