Officer Who Killed Chechen Woman Insane, Court Rules

A military court cleared a Russian colonel Tuesday of criminal responsibility for killing a young Chechen woman, ruling that he was mentally ill at the time of the death and ordering him committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Col. Yuri Budanov had admitted strangling Elza Kungayeva. But he claimed he was interrogating her in his tent, believing her to be a sniper who had killed some of his comrades, and that when she insulted him he lost control and killed her.

Kungayeva’s family said the 18-year-old was raped and killed during a drunken rampage by Russian soldiers.

The high-profile case has been widely viewed as a test of Russia’s attitude toward human rights in its southern republic of Chechnya, where Russian forces are fighting separatist rebels. Chechens and human rights groups say that abuses against civilians in the republic, including summary executions, rapes and looting, are widespread.

The colonel was arrested in March 2000, shortly before a visit to Chechnya by then-U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson. The action was seen as an effort by Moscow to deflect criticism of abuses by troops in Chechnya.

Budanov was the first prominent member of the Russian military to be prosecuted for a crime against a Chechen civilian. He had faced up to 12 years imprisonment if convicted.

“It is absolutely obvious that in its ruling, the court was motivated by considerations of political expediency,” said Stanislav Markelov, a former lawyer for Kungayeva’s family. “This is why Budanov was pronounced insane and acquitted.... Today’s ruling of the court has showed that it is impossible to break the wall of the state justice system.”

Markelov said he had quit the case when it became clear that the court would issue a ruling he considered to be in Budanov’s favor.

About 50 activists from the Russian National Unity ultranationalist group, wearing black armbands with the movement’s insignia, stood outside the court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Tuesday to show support for Budanov.

Alexei Dulimov, the defendant’s lawyer, praised the ruling as protecting the reputation of the Russian army.

“There are no bandits in these armed forces, but Russian soldiers who protect the honor of the state and the integrity of the Chechen republic,” Dulimov said. “I think that the court has sincerely heeded these circumstances and acquitted Budanov, thus acquitting the Russian armed forces.”

But others questioned such an assessment.

“If mentally abnormal, insane people command regiments and direct hostilities carried out on the territory of the Chechen republic, it gives rise to serious questions about the way our corps of officers is formed and about its ability to make accurate assessments of the situation in Chechnya,” said Oleg Mironov, Russia’s human rights commissioner.

Even pro-Moscow Chechens condemned the decision.

“Chechens may lose hope for fair trials involving violations of law by servicemen,” Taus Dzhabrailov, deputy head of the Kremlin-backed administration in Chechnya, said after the ruling.

Abdulla Khamzayev, a lawyer for the victim’s family, accepted the terminology of the court and threw it back at military authorities.

“The Budanov case demonstrated that the Russian armed forces have bungled everything in Chechnya and that insane people are in command,” Khamzayev said. “If today’s ruling ... is given credibility, one can only guess what the Russian armed forces can do in Chechnya. Especially if these insane people are armed, provided with tanks and other materiel and are sent to places like Chechnya to restore constitutional law and order and fight terrorists.”

Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya after a devastating 1994-96 war that left the separatists in charge. In 1999, Moscow sent troops back in to the republic, where they have been fighting ever since.

Khamzayev said he intends to keep fighting the case, if possible up to the Supreme Court. In the Russian legal system, an acquittal does not guarantee protection against further prosecution on the same charges.

Prosecutors originally charged Budanov with rape as well as murder but later dropped that charge, saying that Kungayeva had been “desecrated” after death by one of the soldiers ordered to bury her.

Court-ordered psychiatrists evaluated Budanov’s mental health several times during the trial, reaching various conclusions.

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Alexei V. Kuznetsov of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.