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Sverdlovsk region court begins review of Sagra attack case

The proceedings against one participant in the mass disturbance made a separate case
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

YEKATERINBURG, August 2 (Itar-Tass) — The Sverdlovsk region court on Thursday began to hear the criminal case over the attack on Sagra village residents in the summer of 2011. At the first hearing, the defendants demanded recusal of the judge and the prosecutor for the state.

"The lawyer of defendant Valiyev lodged a petition requesting recusal of presiding judge Ravil Izmailov and prosecutor for the state Ildar Yakupov in connection with the fact that Yakupov earlier attended the hearings on selecting and extending the measure of restraint for /defendant/ Chichua. The petition requesting recusal of the prosecutor was supported by the layer of defendant Fattakhov," the court's press service told Itar-Tass.

Judge Andrei Minayev announced the court's ruling to turn town the petitions, as there were no legal reasons to grant them.

The hearing of the case continues. Security was tightened at the court. There are 23 Sverdlovsk region residents in the prisoner's dock. They are accused of armed attack on the village of Sagra in the summer of 2011.

According to the investigators, Ivan Lebedev and Kakhaber Chichua who are now serving their sentences in prison, set up a gang comprising eight members in early 2011. It included Shota Katamadze, Artyom Rabadanov, Magomed Bekov, Vitaly Slatimov, Kardash Fatakhov and Faig Musaiyev.

"In the summer, two residents of the Sagra settlement - Valentina and Vyacheslav Lebedev, after quarrelling with local residents, phoned their relative Ivan Lebedev in prison and asked him to stage mass disturbances in the village for 30,000 roubles, an official at the regional department of the Prosecutor General's Office said.

"Lebedev instructed Shota Katamadze, together with other gang members, to work out a plan of attack. The gang them phoned their acquaintances and rounded up at least 30 people.

"Having armed themselves with a sawn-off shotgun, non-lethal pistols, baseball bats, wooden sticks, metal rods and other hard objects, they came in 13 cars to Sagra and staged mass disturbances there. The defendants threatened physical violence on injured parties, and fired several shots. It was only after a tip that a police detail was on its way to the village that the attackers left," he said.

The police chief for Verkhenpyshinsky and Sredneuralsky town districts, Sverdlovsk region, and his subordinate have been charged with negligence. The investigators said they had made no efforts to prevent the attack.

The proceedings against one participant in the mass disturbance made a separate case. He was found insane and the investigators asked the court to send him for compulsory treatment.