104 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 the deceased had participated in a terrorist act, and moreover, the customs and religious beliefs of the deceased had to be respected when disposing of the bodies. The Constitutional Court’s ruling was in response to a claim by families of those killed during the armed raid on Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, in October 2005. More than 100 people were reported to have been killed during the ensuing shooting between law enforcement officials and the gunmen; many were wounded. The authorities refused to return the bodies of around 95 of those killed to their families for burial, despite a sustained legal campaign by the families, as the authorities stated that the deceased had participated in the attack. In June, the families of the deceased discovered that their relatives’ bodies had in fact been cremated in June 2006. This information came to light in a response by the Russian authorities to the European Court of Human Rights, in connection with applications to the European Court of Human Rights by the families on the response of the security forces to the armed attack. It was reported that the families planned to mount a legal appeal against the cremation which they viewed as unlawful in the light of the Constitutional Court decision, as cremation goes against Islamic tradition. Rasul Kudaev (update to AI Indexes: 01/007/2006, EUR 01/017/2006 and EUR 01/001/2007) During the period under review the prosecutor’s office of the city of Nalchik repeatedly refused to open a criminal investigation into the alleged torture and illtreatment of Rasul Kudaev, despite court rulings and decisions of senior prosecutor officials overturning this decision. On 25 January the prosecutor’s office of the city of Nalchik refused to open a criminal investigation. This decision was appealed to the Nalchik City Court, which ruled on 7 March that the refusal had been unlawful and ordered the prosecutor’s office to conduct a further inquiry. On 3 May the Amnesty International deputy prosecutor at the prosecutor’s office of the city of Nalchik also overturned the decision of his office of 25 January to refuse to open a criminal investigation. The prosecutor ruled again twice, on 13 May and on 20 May, to refuse to open a criminal investigation. These decisions were similarly overturned by the deputy prosecutor. Rasul Kudaev remained in detention at the end of the period under review, awaiting trial on terrorism-related charges following the October 2005 attack on Nalchik. A second former Guantánamo prisoner, Ruslan Odizhev, was shot dead by law enforcement officers on 27 June. According to officials he had been shot during a police operation. Ruslan Odizhev had allegedly previously been tortured in detention in 2000 before leaving Russia for Afghanistan where he was detained by US armed forces. SERBIA (INCLUDING KOSOVO) General and political developments Following elections on 21 January in which no party gained a majority of seats in the parliament, Serbia remained without a government until 11 May, when agreement on a was finally reached between (former) Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica of the Democratic Party of Serbia (Demokratska stranka Srbije, DSS) and (former) President Boris Tadić of the Democratic Party, (Demokratska stranka, DS) to form a government. The right-wing Serbian Radical Party (Srpska radikalna stranka, SRS) remained the largest party in parliament. Negotiations with the European Union (EU) on Serbia’s Stabilization and Association Agreement resumed in June, having been suspended for over a year due to Serbia’s continuing lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal). On 11 May Serbia assumed the Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007