SECRET TRIAL FOR BOMBING SUSPECTS UNDERWAY.

The closed, secret trial of five residents of Karachaevo-Cherkessia–none of them ethnic Chechens–charged with preparing the explosions of two apartment complexes in Moscow in September of 1999, events which served to precipitate a second Russian invasion of Chechnya–which is presently taking place on the outskirts of Stavropol in southern Russia has recessed until November 12 (RIA Novsosti, October 31). The October 31 issue of the Jamestown Monitor reported that a journalist for that publication had recently visited Stavropol Krai and looked into the trial. Vadim Romanov of the Stavropol Krai prosecutor’s department “reluctantly admitted to the Monitor’s correspondent that his office had not in fact charged the five defendants with involvement in the Moscow and Volgodonsk explosions.”