04 March 2005, 23:59
Witness confesses to firing control shots
The North Caucasus District Court Martial in Rostov-on-Don, Rostov region, has today interrogated Private Ivan Melekhin, a prosecution witness in a retrial of a GRU (Main Intelligence Administration) special unit under the command of Captain Eduard Ulman. The unit is charged with having shot dead six civilians in Chechnya on 11 January 2002.
The witness confessed to having fired control shots at the victims as ordered by one of the defendants. He also said he had helped in gathering and searching the bodies, Gazeta.Ru says.