| The regiment commander's sentence was removed for the Mi-26T crash The North Caucasus Military District Court yesterday overturned the November 5 verdict against Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Kudyakov, whom many considered the “switchman” sent to the dock to answer for the Mi-26T transport helicopter shot down by Chechen militants. Along with the helicopter that crashed to the ground after being hit by a missile in August 2002, 127 military personnel were killed. This gave grounds to consider what happened in the skies over Khankala to be the largest disaster in the modern history of Russian military aviation.
Last fall in Rostov-on-Don, two processes related to the Mi-26T disaster were going on in parallel. In the regional court, Doku Dzhantemirov, one of the three alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attack, was in the dock. And in the Rostov garrison, Anatoly Kudyakov was tried, accused of violating flight rules and official negligence, which through negligence resulted in grave consequences (Articles 351 and 293-2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). True, the Rostov garrison court found the lieutenant colonel guilty only of negligence and sentenced him to three years of suspended imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Anatoly Kudyakov himself categorically did not admit guilt, emphasizing the fact that his duties did not include ensuring the safety of flights over Khankala. The lieutenant colonel was sincerely surprised: if the special services could not prevent the terrorist attack, how could the acting commander of the helicopter regiment do it? Therefore, immediately after the verdict, Mr. Kudyakov appealed it to a higher authority.
“Having considered this case in cassation, the judicial panel for criminal cases recognized the conclusion of the trial court that Kudyakov was guilty of the crime as justified, and the arguments of the cassation appeals were not subject to satisfaction,” the district court reported. “However, since after the verdict was pronounced, but before it entered into legal force, the wording of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was amended by federal law of December 8, the verdict regarding Kudyakov’s conviction was canceled with the termination of the criminal case.”
As explained in court, according to the new edition of Article 293, the act of the lieutenant colonel is not criminal, and therefore he is not subject to jurisdiction. And since such changes in legislation have a retroactive effect, the sentence against Anatoly Kudyakov was canceled for lack of corpus delicti. The prosecutor's office did not consider anyone else responsible for the safety of flights over Khankala to be guilty. This means that only militants will now be held accountable for the death of 127 servicemen. Igor BURAKOV, Rostov-on-Don |
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