Russia: A Russian court began the retrial yesterday of a colonel who escaped conviction despite admitting killing a young Chechen woman, in what rights groups say is a test case of Moscow's willingness to address military crimes in Chechnya, Daniel McLaughlin reports from Moscow.
Col Yuri Budanov, a former tank regiment commander, admitted strangling 18-year-old Kheda Kungayeva in 2000. But a court declared last year he had been temporarily insane at the time of the killing.
The verdict enraged Chechens and the many rights groups which accuse federal forces of kidnapping and murdering civilians with impunity during the two wars Moscow has waged against separatist rebels since 1994.
Ms Kungayeva's parents, who say Col Budanov raped their daughter before strangling her in a drunken rampage, appealed against the verdict and Russia's Supreme Court demanded a retrial.