Helen Despich-Popovich, 02 July 2002

The Russian army stands over the law? The six military, accused of the murder of a journalist who exposed corruption in the Armed Forces, were justified on Wednesday. Dmitry Kholodov, who was 27 years old, worked in the newspaper Moscow Komsomolets. He was killed in October 1994, the bomb was laid in a diplomat. He investigated financial fraud in the army, and showed that the Russian troops, leaving Germany, were engaged in weapons and traffic of stolen cars. Thus, the two Mercedes fell into the hands of the then Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev, after which he received the nickname “Pasha Mercedes”.

The investigation for a long time could not get out of the dead point, but it received a new impulse after the appointment of Yuri Skuratov as the Prosecutor General. The trace of "explosives" led to the paragraph of paratroopers. Colonel, five officers and their subordinates were arrested in 1998. The process that began in November 2000 ended due to the lack of evidence. “Dmitry Kholodov was the first Russian journalist killed for the truth. We did not know that it was possible to kill twice, at first a person, then the truth, ”the Moscow Komsomolets protests and reports his intention to file a cassation appeal.

"Predictability." The release of the six suspects was “predictable”, said Oleg Panfilov, a representative of the organization for the protection of journalists. “The state is not interested in the arrest of Patriots. On the contrary, it wants to plant "villains", such as Kalugin. " Light, when it comes to “their own”, the hand of military justice becomes heavy when necessary. Convicted on Wednesday for 15 years in prison in absentia, former KGB General Oleg Kalugin, today hiding in the United States, is a man who removed the veil of secrets from the “Bulgarian umbrellas” - the murder guns, from which many dissidents fell. In the late 80s, the general joined the democrats, and then published memoirs in which he told the world about the practice of the KGB. Today he acts with the exposures of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which has replaced the KGB. President Vladimir Putin is a native of the special services.

"Impunity". “The story will justify me,” the former general said when he found out about the court decision, “people will remember the true patriots who helped create democracy in Russia. And those who kill thousands of innocent people in Chechnya will be called criminals. ”

Today the country is a different path. Last week, psychiatrists from the Serbian Institute, who once specialized in the “treatment” of dissidents, admitted that Colonel Yuri Budanov, accused of killing a Chechen girl, was “insane” at the time of the crime. This opens the way for a soft sentence with subsequent release. The lawyers of the family of the murdered said yesterday that they would refuse to attend the hearings, since all their requirements to conduct a second examination and the call of witnesses were rejected. “We do not want to participate in illegal hearings, even formally,” said the civil plaintiff Stanislav Markelov yesterday.

In addition, the prosecution, according to which the ex-captain, journalist and ecologist Grigory Pasko was convicted of four years in prison was confirmed last Monday. Double standards of military justice are disturbed by representatives of human rights organizations.

Translation: Inosmi.ru
Published on the website inosmi.ru: 02 July 2002, 11:24
Original publication: russie: une Justice Militaire A deux vitesses

Russia: Double standards of military justice ("Liberation", France)