A lawyer for a Soviet World War II veteran said on Thursday he would push for a review of the European Court of Human Rights decision to grant Latvia's appeal on the case of Vasily Kononov.
In late May, the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg court granted Latvia's appeal to overturn the ruling of July 24, 2008 that found Kononov not guilty of the war-time killing of nine Latvian civilians in 1944.
"Decisions by the Grand Chamber are not reviewed. But if there are some serious violations, an appeal can be filed for a ruling to be reviewed," lawyer Mikhail Yoffe said.
He said new evidence had been discovered, warranting a review.
"For example, the ruling on the Kononov case was made on the basis of an erroneous translation. In particular the Court made its decision on the grounds that Kononov executed POWs, while not even the Latvian courts had charged him with that: The charges included the killing of civilians," Yoffe said.
He also said a number of technical errors were made during the trial.
The Kremlin has been outraged by the court's ruling. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said its decision was "politically motivated".
The court ruled that 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. He denies the charges.
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. RIA Novosti
