RUSSIAN PRISONERS IN QATAR TO HEAR VERDICT ON JUNE 30

DUBAI, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - The session of the Sharia court to be held in the capital Doha of the Arab state of Qatar where a verdict on the case of two Russian citizens is to be returned will be open to all media people, writes Wednesday the Qatar newspaper Al Shark. All the previous hearings, except the first one, proceeded behind closed doors.

A Russian embassy official told RIA Novosti yesterday that a verdict on the case of two Russians charged with complicity in the assassination of the former Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev was likely to be brought in on June 30.

At the criminal court session in Doha on June 8, the side for the prosecution demanded death penalty for the Russians.

A relevant trial opened in Doha on April 11 to listen to the side for the defence on May 25. All the sessions, except the first one, have been held behind closed doors.

The defendants' lawyers asked for the verdict of acquittal on all the points of the indictment. In the opinion of the defence, the arrest and the withdrawal of evidence on the territory of the Russian diplomatic mission were done against law. Besides, the lawyers argue that the New York convention was violated and demanded that the Russians' confession should be eliminated from the case because of its having been acquired under torture.

The defence demanded applying the restitution principle, that is going back to the initial state of affairs and transfer of the Russian citizens to the Russian ambassador in Doha.

In the early hours of February 19, the Qatar secret services arrested three Russian citizens, who stayed in Qatar on business missions, on suspicion of having been involved in the assassination of Yandarbiev. One of the detainees, the first secretary of the Russian embassy in Qatar, possessing diplomatic immunity, was released and returned home on March 24.

Moscow has repeatedly declared in favour of the Russians' innocence and requested their release and immediate return home.

An expert on Islamic Sharia law forecasts the following developments: the trial will progress to its logical end (that is not until a verdict is returned but for a period of all appeals filed, approximately until the end of the year) and then the Qatar emir wielding not only secular power but being top authority with the Qatar clergy as well will issue a firman pardoning the two Russians and banishing them from the country.