Relatives of the militants who perished in Kabardino-Balkaria demand a trial of Savrulin and Shepel

The relatives of the militants who fell victim in Nalchik on October 13, 2005, have lodged a petition to Yuri Chaika, General Public Prosecutor of the Russian Federation (RF), and Ivan Sydoruk, head of the Investigatory Committee of the RF's Prosecutor's Office and Deputy General Public Prosecutor of the RF for the South Federal District (SFD) with a demand to bring Alexei Savrulin, head of the investigatory group of the RF's General Prosecutor's Office for the SFD, and Nikolai Shepel, former Deputy General Public Prosecutor for the SFD, to criminal responsibility, since, in the opinion of the relatives, they had breached the law in relation to burial of militants' bodies.

The petition runs, in particular, that according to the decisions to stop criminal prosecution because of death made by Savrulin, A. Yu., head of the investigatory group of the RF's General Prosecutor's Office for the SFD, "the casualties were recognized guilty without the trial, in violation of the principle of presumption of innocence, participation of defence, adversarial equality of the parties, without representatives and disregarding the changes in the federal laws on terrorism."

"Besides, when making his decision about the burial, Alexei Savrulin made a service forgery by specifying false information that the decision would be sent to President of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) for execution," although it was established by the court that the document had been never sent to the President.

The petition was signed by 31 persons.