Kremlin Coup Plotters’ Trial on Hold; Prosecutors Accused

The trial of the alleged plotters in the 1991 Kremlin coup attempt hit a major snag Tuesday when judges agreed with defendants’ assertions that Russia’s top prosecutors are biased, and the court was adjourned until a fair trial could be assured.

A three-judge military tribunal appealed to the Russian Parliament, which oversees the country’s prosecutor general and his office, to examine “gross violations” of the law in the handling of the case.

The court’s decision rested largely on outspoken public statements against the defendants by Prosecutor General Valentin Stepankov and his top investigator.

The ruling means one more delay in a trial that has already taken nearly two years to get started. It also signifies a possible setback for President Boris N. Yeltsin’s hopes of using a harsh sentence against the plotters as a way to close the book on communism.

The coup attempt of August, 1991, launched when then-Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on vacation and his hard-line cronies tried to isolate him and grab power, hastened the end of Communist rule and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The 12 men accused of masterminding the plot face charges of treason, which carry a maximum penalty of death.

The court had already adjourned indefinitely once this spring because one of the defendants, military-industrial chief Alexander I. Tizyakov, had a heart attack.

From the start, the trial and preparations for it were permeated by political pressure.

“The chief prosecutor has run this case not by the rules of the constitution and laws but by the interests of political parties and the country’s leadership,” defense lawyer Dmitri Shteinberg alleged.

The court’s decision amounted to a request to lawmakers to create a special body of prosecutors who would not be directly subordinate to Stepankov, court spokesman Col. Kirill Zhudro said. It remained unclear whether that means that the current nine-prosecutor team can continue work.

The court’s action also appeared to hint to the Supreme Soviet, the national legislature, that it might want to consider removing Stepankov as prosecutor general.

The delay resulting from the court’s ruling is expected to last several weeks as the Supreme Soviet decides what to do.