21 December 2006, 22:27
Witnesses in Ulman's case: when Chechnya residents were murdered, defendants were in ambush
On December 20, the North-Caucasian Regional Military Court continued interrogating witnesses in Ulman's case. The court listened to evidences of Anatoly Asatin, radio operator of Ulman's group, Roman Pozhidaev, commander of another scout group that took part in special operation in the vicinity of the Dai village, and Stanislav Zarovnyaev, deputy commander of the group.
Anatoly Asatin stated that when conducting the operation on seizing Hattab in January 2002, Ulman's group was assigned a task to make an ambush in the road running to the Dai village, not to examine automobiles. Stanislav Zarovnyaev gave similar evidences. In his words, in 2002, he spoke to Voevodin, and the latter told him that their group had pelted the UAZ car, one passenger was killed, and then they got an order to execute the rest of them. Voevodin said they were "set up" with that order, and he did not indicate who had given the order, and, in Zarovnyaev's words, it was obvious that "Ulman could not decide for himself to liquidate the detainees."
Major Roman Pozhidaev told that before their mission to Chechnya there was no briefing on whether they could sweep a moving car when blocking a road.
Author: Elena Olenina, CK correspondent