In Ingushetia, prosecution party in "case of twelve" demands trial without jury

At the session on June 3 of the court considering a group of suspected participants in the attack on Ingushetia in summer of 2004, the prosecution moved a petition to consider the case without jurymen. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told about it by one of the participants in the litigation.

The hearing took place in the building of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia in the city of Magas. In motivation of their position, prosecutors referred to the changes in legislation, which assume cancellation of juries in the cases usually treated as "anti-state" crimes: terrorism, espionage, mass disorders, etc.

At the same time, according to the source, the defence disagrees and plans to draft a motivated objection to this end. Advocates asked for time till Monday, June 8, to formulate their position.

"Should the court uphold the petition and decide to run the trial without jurymen, the defence will protest against it in higher judicial instances," said the source.

"Even if we refer to new amendments in the Russian Code of Criminal procedure, not all of the 12 defendants are accused of terrorism, thus, at least some of them have the right to be tried by a jury. In this case, their litigation should run separately; but it will protract the trial still more," he said.