Russian Officer Pardoned by Commission (for murder of Chechen woman)

[Rose Siding]

MOSCOW -- Col. Yuri Budanov, a Russian officer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for kidnapping and murdering a Chechen woman he accused of being a sniper, was pardoned by a regional amnesty commission, the Interfax news agency reported Friday.

Budanov was the first Russian officer to be prosecuted for a crime against a civilian in Chechnya. His trial was widely watched throughout Russia for a signal of how the military would handle reports of abuses in Chechnya, which have undermined the Kremlin's efforts to build trust in the war-ravaged republic.

Rights groups say killings of Chechen civilians by Russian soldiers are common and have called for more prosecutions.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-russia-military-trial,0,3175048.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Gyre]

1. Article leaves out the forensic exam result that states

that the lass in question was raped to death. Sorry, I'm with the neocons on this one as to whose side should prevail. The Russians have routinely terrorized Chechnya for a long time.

Gyre