Russia reopens czar case
Over 90 years after the killing of Czar Nicholas II, his wife, their four daughters and a son, and several servants during the Bolshevik revolution, a Moscow city court ordered the opening of a criminal case into the murders.
The czar and the others were shot dead by the Bolsheviks in a basement in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in the early hours of July 17, 1918. In 2008,
Russia’s Supreme Court ordered the exoneration of Czar Nicholas II and his family following a request by Grand Duchess Maria Romanov. But a court had then ruled that no criminal offences were committed against the royal family as they were shot on behalf of the state. The case was closed on the grounds that those who had committed the murders were dead.
The new case will assess evidence and arguments presented by the grand duchess and the prosecutor-general’s office, which was not done previously, lawyer German Lukyanov said. The Romanovs were canonised in 2000 and are buried in a St. Petersburg cathedral. —IANS/RIA Novosti
Post new comment