Russia: Four found guilty of Chechen

[ Russia has made strides in the human rights arena as time passes. This story is proof of that fact.]

Four found guilty of Chechen atrocities

Dmitry Solovyov
15 Jun 2007

MOSCOW - A RUSSIAN court yesterday handed out long jail terms to four army servicemen for killing civilians in Chechnya in a move hailed by a human rights watchdog as a significant victory for justice.

A military court in southern Russia found Captain Eduard Ulman and three subordinates guilty of the January 2002 killing of six civilians, including a woman and a teenager.

Ulman's group, which opened fire on a civilian vehicle and killed the survivors, had been repeatedly retried and acquitted, prompting outrage from Chechens and human rights groups.

"It's a victory for justice that the group was sentenced finally," said Allison Gill, head of the Russian office of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. "We can only hope that this is the first in a long series of trials that will hold [those guilty] to accountability and justice for crimes committed in Chechnya."

Chechnya's pro-Kremlin president, Ramzan Kadyrov, said the court had made a "just decision". But many in Russia see Ulman and his subordinates as soldiers who only fulfilled their duty, including an order to kill the six Chechens which, they had said, was given by a higher ranking officer by radio.

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