The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the sentences handed down to a group of radicals more than 10 years ago for terrorist attacks on Federal Security Service buildings in Moscow need to be reviewed because they were delivered in closed hearings.
Nadezhda Raks, Larisa Romanova, Olga Nevskaya and Tatyana Nekhorosheva from the New Revolutionary Alternative group were found guilty of detonating explosives outside the FSB office in Moscow on Aug. 13, 1998 and April 4, 1999, as well as blowing up the monument to tsar Nicholas II in Podolsk on Nov. 1, 1998.
Raks, Romanova and Nevskaya, were imprisoned for nine, six-and-a-half, and six years respectively on charges of terrorism and illegal possession of explosives. Nekhorosheva's sentence was suspended.
The three members serving prison sentences successfully appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, saying that their closed hearings were a violation of the European Convention's article on the right to a fair trial.
Supreme Court head Vyacheslav Lebedev also submitted a recommendation to cancel the previous sentence and conduct further investigation.
Nekhorosheva opted not to appeal along with the other members.
Preliminary hearings have been scheduled for Aug. 5 and will be held in closed court in accordance with Russian law, but the court will be open for the trial itself, Kommersant reported Monday.
The judge could still order closed sessions if sensitive information is being disclosed, but he would have to provide solid legal grounds for his decision, the report said.
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