28 May 2007, 22:13
Trial on Ulman's case will continue without three defendants
The North-Caucasian Regional Military Court has made a decision to go on with proceedings despite the absence of three out of the four defendants - Eduard Ulman, Vladimir Voevodin and Alexander Kalaganskiy (only defendant Alexei Perelevskiy is present in the courtroom).
It follows from the court ruling that the defendants are accused of committing grave and especially grave crimes, and they have evaded from appearing at the court. In view of the fact that at the trial the judicial investigation was over by the moment of disappearance of the defendants, and the process was at the stage of debates, the court has recognized the situation to be an exclusive case and decided "to run the remaining proceedings in the absence of the defendants."
The court has made this decision after the documents have been announced today, obtained from law enforcement bodies on the course of the search of the three defendants.
It follows from the documents that search cases were opened on the disappeared defendants in Buryatia and Novosibirsk Region. The orientation messages on them have been sent to the Ministries of Internal Affairs of the CIS countries and Departments of Internal Affairs of the Federation subjects. There are no confirmations that the defendants have left the territory of Russia. The check among the accident registration bureaus gave no results.
Thus relatives of the defendants have not applied to the bodies of the Department of Internal Affairs on the fact of disappearance of the defendants, and the spouse of Kalaganskiy has stated that she refuses to evidence under Article 51 of the Constitution.
Author: Elena Olenina, CK correspondent