MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax-AVN) - About 50 servicemen, including seven officers, have been sentenced for various crimes against the Chechen population since the beginning of the counter- terrorism operation, Alexander Savenkov, Russia's senior military prosecutor, told journalists in Moscow on Thursday.
"In the past two months alone, military courts have sentenced four servicemen for crimes committed in Chechnya," Savenkov noted.
The prosecutor said that 168 criminal cases on charges of crimes against the local population have been opened against servicemen since the anti-terrorism operation started. Of them, 101 cases have been closed and another 58 involving 74 soldiers have been sent to military courts.
Taking questions from Interfax, Savenkov specified that these crimes chiefly involve murders, attempts on people's lives and health, and property-related crimes. "I mean thefts, not looting," the military prosecutor stressed.
Commenting on illegal detentions during special operations and identity checks, he said "a criminal case is opened into every such incident and a servicemen's behavior is given a legal assessment." He said that about 100 such operations were held last year, and each of them was supervised by an official from the prosecutor general's office.
Savenkov said an officer was recently sentenced for the illegal detention of two people in the Kurchaloi district. "The same tough punishments will be enforced against all servicemen involved in violations of the law," he said.
Furthermore, several criminal cases opened against soldiers suspected of crimes against the local population will be sent to court in the near future. One of them deals with the murder of six residents of the village of Dai in Chechnya's Nozhai-Yurt district.
Work with the population is very important for the military prosecutor's office, he noted, adding that 605 complaints have been received and ten criminal cases opened.