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Posted on 01/16/2003 3:44:34 PM PST by knighthawk
MOSCOW (AP) — Lawyers for dozens of victims of a deadly October theater raid sought Thursday to remove the judge hearing their lawsuits for millions of dollars from the Moscow government, arguing a conflict of interest.
Sixty-one victims of the Oct. 23-26 theater siege have filed suits against the city government for nearly $60 million, an unprecedented demand in Russia.
Moscow's Tverskoi district court began considering the first 24 suits on Thursday. The victims' lawyers demanded that Judge Maria Gorbacheva be dismissed from the case, saying all city judges receive subsidies from the city, making them dependent on the authorities.
Gorbacheva rejected the demand, saying that the law obliges all branches of the government to provide financial support to the judiciary. She also turned down a motion that sought to transfer the case to the Moscow City Court.
Lawyers said they wanted the trial to be moved to a higher court because it had better conditions for hearing sensitive evidence about the crisis from officials whom they were planning to summon as witnesses.
City officials have sharply criticized the lawsuit, saying the federal government, not Moscow, is responsible for the Chechen conflict and its consequences.
The theater raid ended with Russian special forces storming the building and killing all the 41 hostage-takers, who said they were trying to dramatize their demands for an end to the war in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.
Of the 800 people in the theater, 129 died, two from gunshot wounds and the rest from the effects of a narcotic gas used to incapacitate the militants.
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