Albert

Three special forces servicemen who were being prosecuted for
massacring a group of Chechen civilians in one of Russia's highest
profile criminal trials have gone on the run days before proceedings
were expected to draw to a close.

The three men in the Ulman case - named after the officer who
controlled the GRU (chief military intelligence directorate) unit -
had been granted bail despite protests from the victims' families.

Captain Eduard Ulman, Alexander Kalagansky and Vladimir Voyevodin
previously admitted shooting six Chechens, including a pregnant woman,
on a mountain road in southern Chechnya in January 2002, but claimed
they were innocent because they were following orders.

Their prosecution has been seen as a test case for attempts to punish
war crimes in Chechnya, although critics have questioned why senior
officers have not been prosecuted.

A federal warrant was issued for the men's arrest after they failed to
appear for two hearings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. Last
week prosecutors demanded prison terms of between 18 and 23 years for
the soldiers.

Murat Musaev, a lawyer for the victims' families, told the Guardian
that the court had repeatedly refused his clients' requests to detain
the defendants during their prosecution.

"We were afraid this would happen," he said. "It was clear that they
would be found guilty and of course no one wants to sit in prison for
20 years. So they simply ran away because their movements were not
restricted in any way."

Their escape will be an embarrassment for the Kremlin, which has
struggled to persuade critics that it is serious about holding war
criminals to account after more than a decade of conflict in Chechnya.

The incident that prompted the trial took place near the Chechen
village of Dai when the GRU team, manning a checkpoint, mistakenly
opened fire on a minibus carrying civilians, killing one and wounding two.

The unit was jittery because it was engaged in a sweep designed to
capture an Arab warlord, Khattab, fighting on the side of Chechen
separatists.

The court heard that after bandaging the wounded Capt Ulman radioed
for orders from his superiors, who instructed him to kill the five
survivors, apparently in an attempt to cover up the initial blunder.

The three men have been tried before. They were acquitted of the same
charges by a jury in 2003, but a military supreme court overturned the
verdict on a technicality and ordered a retrial.

Mr Musaev said yesterday: "By running away these men have shown to the
whole world that they know they are guilty."

Author: Tom Parfitt
Date: April 19, 2007
Source: The Guardian