On December 27, 2007, a Russian military court in the North Caucasus region sentenced Russian Interior Force officers Yevgeny Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev to 17 and 15 years in prison respectively for killing three construction workers during a January 2003 operation in the war-torn region of Chechnya. Investigators said the Khudyakov-Arakcheyev reconnaissance unit stopped a truck near the Chechen capital, then officers allegedly ordered men out of the truck and shot them, then set fire to the vehicle. Khudyakov and Arakcheyev were originally acquitted in 2004 for lack of evidence, but the Russian Supreme Court's Military Board set aside the verdict in order for the case to be heard by a military court. In October 2005, the men were found not guilty by a Russian military court, but that decision was later annulled at the request of the Chechen government.

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Learn more about Chechnya, Russia, and the laws governing war crimes from the JURIST news archives.

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