The four Chechen policemen who died in the village...

The four Chechen policemen who died in the village of Martan-Chu on August 16 were killed by rebels in keeping with a verdict of a Shariah court, head of the Urus-Martan district administration Shirvani Yasayev told Interfax.
He said that rebels attacked the homes of the policemen, dragged them to the outskirts of the village and opened fire at them. They also killed two civilians whom they accused of loyalty to the federal authorities, Yasayev said. After that they threw the dead bodies into a ditch.
Sources on the Chechen administration told Interfax that the first execution under a Shariah court ruling was conducted on August 5, 1996 when rebels shot dead the head of Vedeno district administration. The videotape of the execution has been shown by many TV companies many times.
The administration claims that under separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov public executions became a norm of life and sentences were carried out in the centre of Grozny in the presence of thousands of people. People were sentenced to death mainly for domestic crimes.