Board of Judges of Ingushetia complains of president Evkurov

On March 23, the Board of Judges of Ingushetia disseminated its statement passed back on February 12 asserting that President of the republic Yunus-Bek Evkurov interfered with the work of judges demanding to pass verdicts to his liking. The document was sent to President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev.

The judges of Ingushetia are indignant with unreasonable public accusations moved by the republic's leader of corruption and connivance to persons involved in terrorist activity. The workers of justice demand to declare any executive authorities' interference, including President, into the judges' work of executing justice and into the activities of the judicial community, related to formation of judicial bodies, inadmissible.

"It follows from his numerous public statements that all the efforts towards normalization of the political situation in the republic fail because of counteraction of the judiciary. In his statements President Evkurov directly asserts that the judges who acquit terrorists are worse than a dozen of Khattabs, and that only during the first week after the attempt on him judges released hundreds of criminals," runs the Board's statement.

The judges assert that the discrediting campaign against the judicial power, which continues despite assassination of two deputy chairpersons of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia - Hasan Yandiev and Aza Gazgireeva, permanent threats from militants to judges demanding to stop executing justice, has created the situation when separate judges are afraid of making principle decisions on resonant criminal cases.

The appeal was signed by Daurbekov, M. M., Chairman of the Board of Judges of the Republic of Ingushetia, his deputy Gazdiev, I. B., and members of the Board of Judges Ozdoev, A. I., Buzurtanov, P. Kh., and Toldiev, B. Yu., as reported by the "Pravo.Ru" Agency.

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov, in his turn, denies any his encroachment on independence of judges.

"I don't force judges to break laws and release criminals. I say: guys, work only under the law," said the President.

"From the first day of my presidency, I paid attention to the fact that a certain caste had formed in the republic's judicial community, which makes what it would," said the Ingush leader.

Under his statement, any person can have any judgement for a certain price. As an example he states that in this manner immigrants from Chechnya got the status of refugees.

"On none out of the 37 criminal cases initiated last year on corruption anybody was imprisoned. They had stolen 90, 100 and 125 million roubles, but convicted either conditionally or just fined by 300,000 or 500,000 roubles. On the other hand, there are judges who invent cases together with inspectors. Therefore, I tell them: you give rise to criminality, you support criminality, and - the most important - you undermine the authority of the power," said Evkurov.

The President has also addressed the Supreme Court of Russia asking to send a respective commission to the republic and investigate the situation.

"Change the Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia and put things in order," the "Kommersant" newspaper quotes Mr Evkurov as saying.