Circumstances of the Apartment Bombings

Yuri Shchekochikhin died, presumably as a result of poisoning. Yushenkov and Shchekochikhin were the main driving force of the Commission. After their deaths, the Commission effectively ceased its activities.

Defense of Trepashkin

• Human rights activists spoke out in support of Mikhail Trepashkin. Such well-known public figures as State Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva, and lawyer and human rights activist Karina Moskalenko came forward with guarantees to release him on their personal responsibility (which was refused).
• The International Commission of Jurists in Geneva protested Trepashkin's arrest, calling it a "travesty of the rule of law."
• In a letter dated November 4, 2003, a group of former political prisoners, including Elena Bonner and Vladimir Bukovsky, appealed to Amnesty International with a call to recognize Trepashkin as a political prisoner.

Perspectives on the Judicial Proceedings in the Bombings Case

• Since Trepashkin has been taken out of the game, there is no objective independent information about what is happening in the courtroom. As soon as Tatyana Morozova learned of Trepashkin's arrest, she sent a telegram to the judge requesting that Blumenfeld, Felshtinsky, Korolkov, and Trepashkin be summoned as witnesses in the bombings case, and also to consider the circumstances of Trepashkin's arrest as an obstacle to the administration of justice. She received no response from the court.

Information Agency "For Human Rights"

tel/fax (095)202-22-24, zpch@mail.ru