MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) - A court in the Moscow Region has found Tarama Rokhlina guilty of murdering her husband, General Lev Rokhlin, who was also a member of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament.
"The court believes that her guilt has been established beyond reasonable doubt," the judge said, reading out the verdict.
The trial was adjourned after the defendant fainted.
On November 16, 2000, Tamara Rokhlina was given an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted for killing her husband "on grounds of inimical relations." The prosecution is demanding a four-year sentence in the current trial.
A higher court, the Moscow Regional Court, commuted the sentence to four years. In the summer of 2001, the Russian Supreme Court granted an appeal and quashed the guilty verdict. The Supreme Court sent Rokhlina's case for a retrial and the defendant was released from custody.
The retrial began on December 3, 2001, but was suspended on November 15, 2002 for a medical examination of Rokhlina.
In October 2003, Rokhlina was hospitalized with food poisoning, though her lawyer said she had taken 40-50 tablets of an unnamed medicine.
The defendant maintains her innocence and claims that three masked strangers killed her husband.
General Rokhlin, head of the Movement in Support of the Army, an organization seeking to resolve long-standing problems faced by the military, was shot in the head on July 2, 1998 at his dacha.
Earlier, Tamara Rokhlina won a case against the Russian government in the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg court ruled that the European Convention on Human Rights insists on the right to a fast trial and the right of defendants to remain at liberty during the legal process. The court said there were "insufficient grounds" to justify imprisoning Rokhlina during her trial and court ruled that the Russian government should pay Rokhlina 8,000 euros in damages.
