03 February 2005, 18:06 Politics

Basayev was accused posthumously

Ilya Barabanov On Thursday, the Prosecutor General's Office accused the leaders of Chechen militants Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev of organizing the seizure of a school in Beslan. At the same time, news came from Abkhazia about the death of Shamil Basayev.

The conclusion of the Prosecutor General's Office on the involvement of Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov in organizing the terrorist attack in Beslan was announced on February 3 by Nikolai Shepel, Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia for the Southern Federal District.

As the prosecutor stated, the leaders of the Chechen extremists have already been charged in absentia, and a warrant for their arrest has also been received. In addition to the seizure of school No. 1 in Beslan, the prosecutor's office accuses Maskhadov and Basayev of organizing attacks on Grozny and Nazran in the summer of 2004.

According to an employee of the Prosecutor General's Office, this was “a single chain of events that was planned by Maskhadov and Basayev.”

Russian security forces have been dreaming of arresting the two leaders of Chechen extremists for a long time.

It is possible that it will never be possible to arrest Basayev - rumors have appeared in Abkhazia about the possible death of one of the militant leaders in Chechnya.

As the Interfax agency reports, this information was received from a representative of one of the security forces of the unrecognized republic with reference to people close to Basayev’s relatives living in Abkhazia. “We have information that Basayev’s relatives received information from Chechnya about the possible death of militant leader Basayev in the second half of January,” an anonymous source told Interfax. According to him, this information “comes from the environment of one of the influential field commanders in Chechnya close to Basayev.”

According to the “Abkhaz” version, Basayev was mortally wounded as a result of an armed clash with a group consisting of foreign mercenaries in the Gudermes region.

“According to unconfirmed information received from Chechnya, during this clash several foreign mercenaries from the entourage of Abu Haws, the coordinator of terrorist activities in the North Caucasus from Al-Qaeda (an organization banned in Russia), were also injured,” the source noted. After his death, Basayev was allegedly buried by the militants who were with him. Representatives of the FSB Central Election Commission refuse to comment on this information.

It is possible that the existence of a living Basayev will be confirmed in the most direct way tonight. The fact is that the British television channel Channel 4 scheduled to broadcast an interview with Basayev on Thursday (the date when it was taken is not yet known). The Russian Foreign Ministry has already expressed its dissatisfaction with the plans of British journalists.

Regardless of the life or death of Basayev, the Russian security forces will probably not stop the long-term search for the leader of Chechen extremists. Both Basayev and Maskhadov - even before Beslan - were put on the federal and international wanted list under several articles at once. At the beginning of the current Chechen campaign, the Russian prosecutor's office opened criminal cases against all more or less well-known field commanders. All of them were accused in absentia of terrorism, armed rebellion, organizing illegal armed groups and other crimes. Therefore, the new accusation only added to an already very impressive list.

In the case of Beslan, the accusation against Maskhadov seems a little strange. Let us recall that Basayev himself took responsibility for all of the above actions (Beslan, Grozny, and Nazran), while Maskhadov claimed that the “official armed units of Ichkeria” had nothing to do with them. In a statement released at the end of September, the leader of the Chechen militants even said that he was going to try Basayev for organizing the seizure of a school in Beslan. “I responsibly declare that after the war is over, people guilty of war crimes, including Shamil Basayev, will be brought to justice,” Maskhadov said in a letter posted on one of the websites of Chechen militants. At the same time, Maskhadov separately emphasized that he had nothing to do with the seizure of the school in Beslan. “I declare that the leadership of the Chechen Republic and the armed forces under my control are in no way involved in this terrorist attack,” the statement said. Unlike Maskhadov, Basayev took responsibility not only for the seizure of the Beslan school and the organization of attacks on Grozny and Narzan, but also admitted his responsibility for organizing the explosions on Kashirskoye Highway and near the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow, as well as for terrorist attacks on board aircraft Tu-134 and Tu-154.