Chechen murder trial opens

The trial is due to open in the Russian city of Rostov today of an army colonel accused of killing a young woman in Chechnya.

It's thought to be the first such case to come to court since Russian troops entered Chechnya seventeen months ago.

The defendant, Yuri Budanov, is accused of kidnapping an eighteen-year-old women Kheda Kungaeva from her home in a village Tangi-Chu near Urus Martan in March last year, and killing her two hours later. Human rights officials say she was raped -- though Colonel Budanov does not face rape charges. There've been persistent allegations of human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya, and the trial is opening while the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles is in Chechnya on a fact-finding mission.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service