Russian friendly-fire police cleared

MOSCOW, Russia -- Two senior Russian police commanders have been cleared of criminal negligence in connection with a friendly fire incident in Chechnya that killed 22 troops and injured 31.

General-Major Boris Fadeyev, former deputy head of police for the Moscow region, and Colonel Mikhail Levchenko, former commander of Interior Ministry troops in Chechnya were cleared on Friday after a two month trial.

The charges arose from an incident in March 2000, when a unit of Russia's OMON special police at the end of a three-month tour of duty opened fire on the unit sent to replace it, believing the other troops were rebels in disguise.

The new unit was attacked with machine guns and grenades as they entered the Chechen capital Grozny.

Among those killed was the Sergiyev Posad unit's commander, Dmitry Markelov.

Initial reports claimed rebels had ambushed the column.

Witness accounts said the first and last trucks of the nine-truck column were hit by incendiary rockets and a four-hour battle involving machine guns and grenades ensued.

Prosecutors said Fadeyev and Levchenko had failed to follow proper procedures in arranging for the arrival of the unit from the town of Sergiyev Posad.

In particular, prosecutors said the defendants should have arranged for the troop column to have cover from helicopters and armoured vehicles.

But Judge Bakar Magumadov of the Staropromyslovsky district court of Grozny said the trial evidence did not support the charges.

Fadeyev and Levchenko, who now heads the Moscow region's traffic police, faced a maximum of five years for "negligence leading to death."

A third defendant, Major Igor Tikhonov, ex-head of the OMON from the town of Podolsk near Moscow, was excused from the proceedings on health grounds.