MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The Staropromyslovsky district court of Grozny on Friday fully acquitted Russian Interior Ministry officers Boris Fadeyev and Mikhail Levchenko, who were charged with negligence that caused the deaths of 20 policemen from a riot police unit from Sergiyev Posad and two from Podolsk.
The court, which held a visiting session at Moscow's Presnya inter-municipal court, has found that the charges brought against the two police officers are unsubstantiated and they must be acquitted due to the absence of corpus delicti, an Interfax correspondent has reported.
The North Caucasian department of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office maintained that former deputy head of the Moscow region's main interior department (GUVD) Major General Boris Fadeyev and former head of the command group of the combined Interior Ministry force in Chechnya Colonel Mikhail Levchenko failed to provide a proper armored escort to the Seriyev Posad police convoy moving from Mozdok to Grozny. According to the investigation, this was the reason that the convoy came under fire near the village of Podgornoye outside Grozny on March 2, 2000. Twenty-two policemen were killed and over 30 wounded in that battle.
The Staropromyslovsky district court has found that the decision to transfer the Sergiyev Posad police convoy from Mozdok to Grozny was made by commander of this unit Dmitri Markelov. "Failing to provide rations to the unit and receive a route sheet, Markelov made the decision to move on his own," which prevented Levchenko from performing his duty on organizing an escort for the convoy and providing its security.
As for Boris Fadeyev, he had to fulfill an order on escorting a Moscow region patrol police unit to Gudermes, which he did, the court said.