Accused Soviet Coup Plotters Must Face Trial

Want to avoid jail? Just get yourself elected to Parliament.

That’s what two accused plotters of the 1991 coup attempt thought. They tried Wednesday to convince a Russian court that they need no longer stand trial for trying to overthrow then-Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev because they have won election to the new Parliament and, as lawmakers, now enjoy statutory immunity from prosecution.

But the court ruled that the immunity does not extend to crimes committed two years prior to election, and ordered the coup plotters to stand trial for treason.

The novel defense ploy was the latest bizarre twist in the protracted saga that has left many Russians wondering if the former Soviet leaders charged with masterminding the August, 1991, coup attempt will ever be brought to justice.

Meanwhile, a new set of accused plotters, including former Vice President Alexander V. Rutskoi and former Parliament Chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, are still jailed in a former KGB prison while the October rebellion is being investigated.

In a show of nostalgia for the old regime, voters elected to the new Russian Parliament two of the men who said they staged the 1991 coup to try to save the ailing Soviet Union.

Anatoly I. Lukyanov, 63, a chairman of the Soviet Union’s old Supreme Soviet, was elected to the lower house, or Duma, and Vasily A. Starodubtsev, 62, a collective farm leader, beat four other candidates to win a seat in the upper house, or Federation Council.

Prosecutors argued to the three judges for the military branch of the Supreme Court that Russia’s newly adopted constitution provides absolute immunity only for the president. As for immunity for judges and lawmakers, “there are nuances here,” prosecutor Oleg Ankudinov said.

The court agreed and ordered the defendants to return to trial on Monday.

The new legislature’s maiden session will be on Tuesday.