MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow's Military Court released from custody Tuesday a former North Caucasus military judge facing fraud charges, who four years ago sentenced a Chechnya colonel to prison for abduction and murder.
Vladimir Bukreyev's lawyers insist the bribery charges against him were trumped up by military prosecutors in retaliation for the conviction of Yury Budanov, a high-ranking military officer, found guilty of killing a young Chechen woman.
The ex-judge is charged with accepting a $40,000 bribe as deputy chairman of the North Caucasus Military District Court in November 2005, and faces up to 10 years in jail. He has pleaded not guilty.
Budanov, commander of the 160th tank regiment during the second campaign in Chechnya, was given 10 years in prison for murdering 18-year-old Chechen Elsa Kungayeva in the summer of 2000. Budanov admitted killing Kungayeva, but claimed temporary insanity, saying he strangled her in a fit of rage because he thought she was a sniper.
The colonel's highly-publicized conviction came after a lengthy legal process that saw a retrial and numerous psychiatric reports, and was then followed by an appeal for clemency from the president. Public opinion was split on the issue, with human rights activists pressing for a harsh sentence and other groups, including army representatives army, pushing for an acquittal.
In December 2002, a court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don accepted Budanov's defense and acquitted him, but Russia's Supreme Court overruled the verdict in February 2003 and ordered a retrial.
In July 2003, the military tribunal of the North Caucasus Military District presided over by Bukreyev sentenced Budanov to 10 years and stripped him of all of his officer's decorations after a two-year trial.
