MOSCOW, June 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a professional non-jury court should try the case of Army Captain Eduard Ulman, accused of killing six people in troubled Chechnya in 2002.
"The board [of the Supreme Court] has sent the case for new preliminary hearings," a Supreme Court official said. "It will thereby be tried by professional judges, rather than a jury like in previous trials."
Ulman and three co-defendants have been acquitted twice on charges of murder and abuse of office by the North Caucasus District Military Court, but the Russian Supreme Court's military court has overturned the rulings.
The Supreme Court upheld an appeal filed by prosecutors in the case and backed by lawyers acting for the victims.
"The North Caucasus District Military Court needed official permission from the Supreme Court to avoid contradictions with the Russian Constitutional Court's ruling," lawyer Murad Musayev said. "The district court has no right to adopt decisions on such matters, whereas now the Constitutional Court ruling will be implemented."
The Constitutional Court ruled April 6 that serious crimes committed in war-torn Chechnya could be tried without needing a jury.
The ruling came following a request from Chechen President Alu Alkhanov over the legality of several articles in laws on military courts that he said gave the military the rights not enjoyed by ordinary citizens.
Alkhanov earlier said servicemen suspected of crimes in Chechnya were tried in jury courts, whereas ordinary Chechen defendants would only be able to have jury trials starting from 2007. He also said the jury in the "Ulman case" had not comprised ethnic Chechens, which had influenced the court decision.
