Budanov is the highest ranking officer to be tried for crimes against civilians

Colonel Yuri Budanov is alleged to have raped and strangled 18-year-old Kheda Kungayeva, whom he said he suspected of being a sniper.

He admitted the killing at his first trial, and was convicted of manslaughter, rather than murder, on the grounds of temporary insanity.

The verdict was later overturned by a higher court after objections from human rights campaigners in Chechnya.

Jury trial demand

Preliminary hearings are taking place behind closed doors at the court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Colonel Budanov is the highest ranking officer to be tried for crimes against civilians in Chechnya.

His lawyers appealed for a trial by jury instead of by a military court, arguing that this would prevent political pressure for a guilty verdict.

"We believe that a jury trial, if it is allowed... would show more humanity and impartiality, " lawyer Anatoly Mukhin told the Associated Press news agency.

Lawyers for the Kungayev family have opposed the demand.

'Drunken rampage'

The case has been seen by many abroad as a test of whether Moscow is willing to clamp down on human rights abuses by its forces in Chechnya.

Kungayeva's family says she was taken from her home at night, raped and murdered during a drunken rampage by Russian soldiers.

Correspondents say there is little sympathy for the suffering of civilians in Chechnya, following the siege of a Moscow theatre last October by Chechen rebels.