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Moscow Judges Seek Protection Against Death Threats


Russia -- Olga Yegorova, chairwoman, Moscow city-court, 21Sep2010
A Moscow court official says 13 judges
in the Russian capital have requested police protection this year after
receiving death threats, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

Moscow city court chairwoman Olga Yegorova said earlier this week
that she has never received so many requests for protection from judges before.
One Moscow judge has been killed this year.

Yegorova added that the figure only includes judges in Moscow, and that there
have been attacks on judges in other regions. She said that she, too, has
received death threats.

"It's either the result of someone dissatisfied with how a case was handled and
the severity of a sentence, or it's because someone is jealous and angry,"
Yegorova said. "I think it's necessary to process cases quicker, issue
comprehensive procedural documents so that citizens understand why they receive
rejections [of their cases]."

Yegorova refused to discuss the perceived partiality of Moscow judges in libel
cases involving Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, but claimed that about one-third of
legal complaints lodged by citizens against the Moscow municipal authorities
are successful.

She also said that as a result of amendments to the criminal code -- introduced
this year by President Dmitry Medvedev -- that outlaw the pretrial detention of
people charged with economic crimes, 13 suspects in Moscow have been released
and placed under house arrest and 22 others awaiting trial for economic crimes
have been released on bail.


Reported and compiled by RFE's Russian Service and O wire.
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