MOSCOW, March 18 - RAPSI. The Moscow City Court has formed a new jury to consider the murder of former Colonel Yuri Budanov, the court told RAPSI on Monday.
The court appointed 12 jurors and eight alternate jurors.

The hearings will start on March 20, the court said. During the hearing, the prosecutor will read the charges and the defendant Yusup Temerkhanov, will enter his plea.

Although the case was heard earlier, the court dissolved the jury after several jury members resigned for health reasons as the proceedings neared completion.
The hearings will now begin anew.

A range of scandals happened during the first hearing on the case. The media earlier quoted a police source, claiming witness Ruslan Sataliyev had said that the defendant's lawyers tried to bribe him.

Attorney Murad Musayev, who represents the suspect Yusup Temerkhanov, said that Sataliyev had been kidnapped and beaten up after testifying in the Moscow City Court. He claimed that police officers who wanted the man to testify against the defendant were responsible for this.

The defense lawyer claimed that the kidnappers wanted Sataliyev to say that he had been given 100,000 rubles ($3,315), the same sum that was paid to the previous witness, Alexander Yevtukhov, but the man refused to say so because he had received only 15,000 rubles ($488).

Yevtukhov disappeared under suspicious circumstances on his way to court. He later appeared in court to give testimony in the case, but refused to answer questions about his alleged kidnapping.

Yevtukhov testified that Temerkhanov did not look like the man who killed Budanov, and that the killer was a man of Slavic appearance who was shorter than Temerkhanov.

Yevtukhov also filed two complaints, claiming that the defendant's lawyers threatened him and he had received 100,000 rubles ($3,300) from them. After his claim was filed, the court announced a recess until January 28.

Budanov was convicted of war crimes in Chechnya in July 2003. A military court found him guilty of abuse of power in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Chechen Elza Kungayeva. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and deprived of his rank, his medals, and the chance to hold official positions for three years after his release.

In January 2009, he was released on parole. In June 2011, Budanov was shot dead as he walked out of a notary office in Moscow.

Investigators believe Temerkhanov planned to commit murder after his father was killed in Chechnya in 2000. They suspect he picked Budanov as his victim, as the colonel had been tried for kidnapping and killing Kungayeva in 2000.