Court Overturns Ruling in Chechnya Slaying
Russia’s Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that a colonel who strangled a Chechen woman was mentally ill and not criminally responsible.
Col. Yuri Budanov, the first senior military officer to be prosecuted for a crime against a Chechen civilian, had been ordered confined to a psychiatric hospital by a military court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
The ruling infuriated human rights advocates and even pro-Moscow Chechen officials. The case was sent back to the Rostov court for consideration by a new panel of judges.
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