SCANDAL. German court decided it's a 'war crime' for a Chechen to kill Russian invaders to free his brother

18 February 2010

In Germany, the Federal Administrative Court has found the actions of the Chechen who killed two Russian invaders in an attempt to liberate his brother to be "a war crime".

The claimant in this case was the Federal Authority for Migration and Refugees, which refused to grant political asylum to the Chechen, who had killed two Russian invaders and kidnapped one more in an attempt to liberate his brother. This resident of Chechnya arrived in Germany in 2002 and applied for political asylum arguing that in case of his deportation to Russia he would be politically persecuted, as the Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster, reports.

On February 16, this German Court ruled that "a murder of a military committed by a civilian even an armed conflict zone can be qualified as a war crime".

He managed to succeed in lower instance: both the administrative court and the supreme administrative court in Magdeburg ruled his actions were beyond the definition of "war crime", as they were undertaken against soldiers, not against civilians, as the Deutsche Welle reported. However, the Federal Authority for Migration and Refugees protested against this decision, the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.

After the scandal verdict of the Federal Administrative Court, the case was returned for repeated consideration to the supreme administrative court of Magdeburg.

Now the German judges must give an answer, if a murder of a military committed by a civilian even an armed conflict zone can be qualified as a "war crime"; then how must we describe the mass murders, bombing of residential areas, abductions, tortures which are committing by Russian occupation forces in Chechnya?

Kavkaz Center + WaYNaKH Online

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/02/18/11446.shtml.