As Mongolia is about to present its first ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to the Human Rights Council in 2010, three of the four soldiers who killed three of their colleagues in the Ulaan-Uul frontier outpost were sentenced to death this Thursday. M. Tulga, L. Lhagvajav and E. Oyunbold were given the maximum penalty while R. Enkhjargal was given a 25 years in the heavy discipline prison.

The four soldiers killed M. Enkh-Amgalan, S. Bum-Erdene, and E. Byambasuren “without reason” and injured Ts. Sod-Erdene during the night from the 22nd to 23rd of November 2009. That night, Mr. Sod-Erdene said he heard a loud noise and went to the base to check. As he opened the door of the barrack, he came under firing and was shot twice. Injured, he ran over 20 kilometres to the nearest military base. The four soldiers then took hostages and tried to flee, but they were arrested by Mongolian Special Forces as they intended to do so.

This Thursday, 3 months after the trial began, the accused were brought to court under guard and were not permitted to meet their families. The court delivered its verdict behind closed doors as it included details of the structure of border divisions. All four people convicted are residents of the Darkhan-Uul province. The case was heard at the Sukhbaatar district court and all four can appeal to the Metropolitan Court.

The verdict comes after E. Bat-Uul MP, chairman of the Mongolian delegation to the Fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty held last February 24-26 in Geneva, Switzerland, conveyed a message from President Ts. Elbegdorj in which he acknowledged the “heartfelt letters of support and greetings” sent by the United Nations and other international organizations, the European Union and Governments from all over the world, regarding Mongolia’s declaration of moratorium on the death penalty. In his message the president also reiterated that the “State should initiate, should enlighten, should set examples, should lead on, and should resolve the issue of capital punishment.” He ended by saying he is “convinced (that) this policy is consistent with the historic choice that Mongolia’s people made 20 years ago, and with the path and aspiration of the country to safeguard human rights and democracy... expressing his zero intention to retreat from the course he started because this is a right, pure and just goal.”

Эх сурвалж Өдрийн сонин