The lower House of the Russian parliament considers the European Court of Human Rights' decision to grant Latvia's appeal on the case of Vasily Kononov a "dangerous judicial precedent," a parliamentary statement said on Friday.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on Monday granted Latvia's appeal to overturn the court's ruling of July 24, 2008 that found Soviet World War II veteran Kononov not guilty of the war-time killing of nine Latvian civilians in 1944.
Kononov and a group of other partisans killed nine Latvian citizens suspected of collaboration with Nazis on May 27, 1944. Kononov spent nearly two years in a Latvian jail from 1998 to 2000 on charges of genocide.
In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Latvia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights in imprisoning Kononov because the villagers' murder was not a crime under Soviet or international law at the time it was committed. The court referred to Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits retroactive punishment for crimes.
The Russian parliamentary statement said the decision could lead to a "change in the legal approaches to the evaluation of World War II events."
It said the court's ruling reflects the Latvian authorities' "policy of revenge and chauvinism that encourages state leaders to revise the principles and decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal."
"The ruling...is purely political in nature and not based on the universally recognized principles and norms of international law."
MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti)
