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Court rejects appeal for 54 more plaintiffs in Chechnya case

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MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court refused Monday to involve another 54 plaintiffs in the case of a Chechen village allegedly devastated by a Russian Defense Ministry-led operation last summer.

Following the special operation, during which several houses in the village of Borozdinovskaya were burned down and residents beaten, many villagers fled and set up a campsite on the border with Dagestan.

Initially, 42 village residents filed a suit demanding compensation for moral damages of $4.8 million from the Defense Ministry, but on Monday defense lawyer Ramzan Radzhabov requested that another 54 plaintiffs be included in the suit.

"We request that the Defense Ministry pay $4 million [to them] in moral damages," the lawyer said.

The ministry said such demands were impossible to satisfy, and the court requested documentary evidence from the lawyer.

The lawyer said the lawsuit followed the ministry's brutal actions in the village.

"On June 4, 2005, armed servicemen of the Vostok battalion of the Defense Ministry entered the village. They blocked the village using weapons and special equipment," Radzhabov said.

"They gathered all the local men together and forced them to lie face down on the ground. They beat the residents of Borozdinovskaya for eight hours under pouring rain," he said.

"That bloody and cruel operation forced the villagers to flee their homes, and they are now living in unsanitary conditions in a camp," the lawyer said.

Radzhabov said his next move would be to file a separate lawsuit on behalf of the additional 54 plaintiffs. "But with time, we will seek to consolidate the two cases," he said.

The court has adjourned until January 17 when it will resume hearings in the case of the 42 original plaintiffs.

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