Mysterious Sheikh

After the president of the rebel Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov, was killed on March 8, 2005 in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, many expected confusion, if not an open struggle for power, in the ranks of the separatists. But the very next evening, March 9, Maskhadov’s successor was named - Chairman of the Supreme Sharia Court Abdul-Halim Saidulaev. The Decree of the President of the ChRI Maskhadov and the resolution of the State Defense Committee - Majlis-ul-Shura of the ChRI dated July-August 2002 were put into effect. It was written in these documents ahead of time that “in the event of the death or capture of the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, all his duties until the holding of free elections are performed by the Chairman of the Supreme Shariah Court of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.”

Who is Abdul-Halim Saidulaev?

Almost nothing is known about it - and for underground conditions it is not just natural, but is a basic condition for survival. It was during the “first Chechen war” that field commanders willingly posed for cameras - now any photo or video image is dangerous.

They say that this young man, about thirty-five years old, has not only a spiritual, but also a good secular education. The news feed of one of the news agencies reported: “Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul-Halim is a native of Saudi Arabia, he trained suicide bombers and was the leader of the Wahhabi underground in Chechnya.” The official mufti of Chechnya, Akhmad-haji Shamaev, called Saidulaev “a puppet in the hands of Basayev,” adding that he is “completely unknown both in the Islamic world and in the West, and is not a great authority among the spiritual leaders of Chechnya,” and “has never received special spiritual education." The mufti recalled that in order to carry out terrorist attacks, the militants needed so-called fatwas - permission from their Sharia court, and not a single murder could occur without the approval of Saidulayev. But he is a mufti, almost a political worker.

The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Chechen Republic was much more restrained: Abdul-Halim is not a native or resident of Saudi Arabia, since he was born and raised in the Chechen city of Argun. He received his religious education first at home, then studied in Central Asia, and is fluent in Arabic. The Directorate also reported that before the outbreak of hostilities, Abdul-Halim joined radical Islamists and was close to the then chairman of the Supreme Sharia Court, Shamsudin Batukaev, who was favorable towards the Wahhabis and actually supported the radical opposition to Maskhadov. In fact, “before the outbreak of hostilities, he was not a prominent figure in Ichkeria, and nothing was heard about him during all the years of the counter-terrorist operation in the Chechen Republic.”

Well, not quite like that - sometimes you could hear something.

All these years, the Sharia court headed by Saidulaev operated underground, and it is difficult to say anything definite about its activities - after all, it is important to establish the authenticity of a document, but how? But here, for example, is one story with this very Sharia court.

At the end of August 2001, the text of the “verdict” appeared on the Internet:

"Bringing apostates and apostates to repentance.

The decision of the Supreme Sharia Court and the general command of the VVMSHM [Higher Military Majlis-ul-Shura of the Mujahideen - L.R.] regarding Muradov Musa and the workers of the newspaper "Grozny Rabochiy" collaborating with the occupation authorities.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds and the mercy of Allah upon His Messenger, and then: In case of refusal, he is sentenced to death.

Muradov Musa and his accomplices - employees of the newspaper "Grozny Rabochiy" Kushaliev Abuezid, Mutsuraev Alkhazur, Turpalov Lema - committed several actions that led them out of the fold of Islam:

1. Promotion and support of non-believers against Muslims.

The Almighty said: “O you who believe! Do not take Jews and Christians as friends: they are friends of one another. And if one of you takes them as friends, he himself is one of them. Verily, Allah does not guide unrighteous people!” (Sura "Meal").

2. Their recognition of the judgment of Christians over themselves and opposition to the Sharia court.

The Almighty said: “And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, then these are infidels” (Sura “Meal”).

3. Their permission of what Allah has forbidden, such as the blood and property of Muslims and rule over them...

Based on the above charges, the Supreme Shariah Court rules:

1. Musa Muradov, Abuezid Kushaliev, Alkhazur Mutsuraev, Lema Turpalov, who collaborate with the occupation authorities and receive cash handouts from the sworn enemy of Islam and Sharia, the Jew Soros, are apostates. They all call for repentance, otherwise the death penalty will be carried out.

2. Those involved in the pro-Russian media will be destroyed if both men and women refuse to repent.

3. Those who collaborate with the occupation authorities to obtain food or to ensure their own safety must leave their places of work. Otherwise, they may be destroyed, because they mixed with infidels and apostates.

The amirs and judges of the districts are entrusted with enforcing the decisions of the Shariah Court in accordance with the words of the Almighty and His Messenger. Every Muslim is obliged to help the Mujahideen in searching and identifying apostates and apostates. It is also necessary to distance yourself from them so that the punishment does not affect you during the execution of the sentence."

After the noise raised in the press, after appeals to Maskhadov, the editorial office of Novaya Gazeta received a response on behalf of the editor-in-chief of the Kavkaz Center, Yusuf Ibragim:

“In the Supreme Shariah Court at the Majlisul Shura of the Mujahideen (the Supreme Qadi is Abu Umar, his deputy is Abdulalim Abu Dujana), we were informed that no case against the journalist Musa Muradov was considered and was not even submitted by anyone to the Supreme Shariah Court of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria "Supreme Qadi Abu Umar expressed hope that the Russian special services will not dare to touch Musa Muradov."

Masa Muradov is still alive and well. The authenticity of both texts - both the verdict and the letter - is difficult to both confirm and refute. Both are “notes from the underground”; anyone could have written them.

In the case of authenticity - whether the verdict or refutation - the participation of Abdul-Khalim Saidulaev in it is unclear, although he looks suspiciously like “the deputy supreme qadi Abdulalim Abu Dujan.”

Abdul-Halim Saidulaev seemed to be subordinate to the detachments operating in the area of ​​the village of Starye Atagi, and his name was mentioned in connection with the abduction of a representative of the international organization Doctors Without Borders, Kenneth Gluck. He was captured in Starye Atagi on January 9, 2001, and on February 3 of the same year was released by the kidnappers without presenting any demands. Then Shamil Basayev took responsibility for this: “my guys, I figured it out and ordered to be released, and from now on, don’t touch foreigners.” But Basayev is one of the few public figures since pre-war times, and whose words did he then voice in front of a video camera - his own, or those of the Chairman of the Sharia Court Saidulaev?

The fact that Saidulaev was involved in the abduction of Gluck is known, in particular, from the verdict handed down on July 4, 2003 in Rostov to two perpetrators Magomed-Hussein Gakaev and Ayub Kataev. According to investigators, they were members of a detachment whose commander, Abubakar Dzhumaev, “reported directly to the first deputy of Aslan Maskhadov, Abdul-Halim Saidulaev,” from whom, in early January 2001, the task was allegedly received: to take hostage one of the foreigners with with the aim of exchanging for other captured militants (specifically, for the former commander of this detachment, Anzor Mukaev, detained in April 2000 in Shali).

And here’s an even more intriguing detail: it turns out that Abdul-Halim Saidulaev was allegedly detained in Chechnya in October 2002, and investigators charged him with serious crimes: organizing the kidnapping of Kenny Gluck in January and the murder of the deputy head of the administration of Starye Atagi, Ruslan Dzhumaev, in October 2001. The detainee allegedly also admitted to the murder of the son of a local policeman, his brother and another from Atagino, and also that on March 1, 2000, he broke out of encirclement as part of Khattab’s detachments through the battle formations of the sixth company of Pskov paratroopers, which was then completely destroyed... About this The regional operational headquarters reported on October 23, adding that “measures are being taken to establish the involvement of the detainee in other previously committed crimes.”

If it was the same Abdul-Halim, then why is he now free? If not, then who did they interrogate? Or was there no arrest at all? Here is Movsar Barayev, whose terrorists captured the theater center on Dubrovka on that very day, October 23, 2002, by that time he was listed as dead more than once - the federal command reported his destruction three times. And what happened - both with Baraev and Saidulaev? Error upon error? Ordinary postscripts, a desire to fool the authorities? Or work, fooling the minds of viewers, listeners, readers? Or cunning special propaganda, discrediting the field commander in front of his comrades? The underground provides a lot of opportunities for everything together and at once.

This is worth keeping in mind when assessing the reliability of the conclusions made by the court in Rostov, and the authenticity of the verdicts of the Sharia court posted on the Internet.

If his detachment operated in the Starye Atagi area, then we can say what kind of reality surrounded Saidulaev. It was there that the purges were the most brutal (Memorial published a book, “Counter-Terrorism Operation,” about the events in this village). However, it is not clear which detachment he commanded - at that time, both the “Wahhabi” and “Maskhadov” underground operated in parallel in Starye Atagi, relations between which were very tense until 2002.

The succession decree was signed by Maskhadov in the summer of 2002, during a brief period of reconciliation between these two forces opposing the federal center - separatist and extremist. At the beginning of the second war, the population of the republic hated the “Wahhabists” almost more than the “federals” - the latter came with the war, but the former brought the war with their invasion of Dagestan. However, over the course of three years, after repeated “hard purges,” these relations have changed. “Maskhadovites” could not help but become embittered. The “Wahhabists,” seeing the suffering of their fellow tribesmen, could not help but partly lose their cosmopolitan – in the sense of the victory of “true Islam” throughout the world – impulse. Finally, the population of Chechnya itself became radicalized - the people themselves, from below, pushed the rival groups to unite. This association took shape around June 2002 - that’s when this hybrid, “State Defense Committee - Majlis-ul-Shura”, Maskhadov and Basayev, appeared. Then the decree and resolution on legal succession were signed.

But already in the fall of 2002, after the tragedy at Dubrovka, Maskhadov sharply dissociated himself from terrorism. And in relation to Basayev, who took responsibility for the terrorist attack, the Resolution of the State Defense Committee-Majlisul-Shura of November 5, 2002 was adopted. Denying his involvement, considering “any encroachment on the life and natural inalienable rights of civilians to achieve military-political goals unacceptable” , the State Defense Committee decided: 1. To condemn the actions related to the taking of hostages in Moscow, regardless of their goals and composition of participants. 2. Based on the statement by the head of the military committee of the GKO-MS Sh. Basayev about his involvement in the incident of October 23-26 in Moscow, instruct the General Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Sharia Court of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria to conduct an investigation with a subsequent decision in accordance with the legislation of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. 3. The President of CRI, Chairman of the State Defense Committee-MSH A. Maskhadov, make a decision to remove Sh. Basayev from all positions held until a decision is made by the Supreme Shariah Court of CRI." Meanwhile, the Shariah court headed by Saidulaev has not yet convicted Basayev...

What line will Maskhadov's successor take?

Akhmet Zakayev, on the air of Ekho Moskvy, spoke about the continuity of the course: “it is almost impossible to compete with Maskhadov’s authority today, but in our case we are talking only about a person who can and is ready to take responsibility and continue the fight for peace in Chechnya.”

Aslan Maskhadov's son Anzor told the Associated Press about the same thing: "A year ago, my father said that if he was killed, the new president would be a man who resembled him - he would be a restrained and patient person, and he would continue our course."