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Qatar to Return Russian Convicts to Homeland
December 23, Qatar has promised to return to Russia two citizens of the Russian Federation who were convicted of involvement in the murder of Chechen separatist representative Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, a Qatari news agency is reporting, citing an official of that country's ministry of foreign affairs.
Qatar has agreed to the Russian government's request that it hand over the two Russian,, so that they may serve their terms in their homeland, the official is reported to have said. British media have also carried this news.
Qatari intelligence arrested three Russian citizens who were in Qatar on a business trip on February 18, 2004. They were accused of the premeditated murder of Yandarbiev, who died when a car bomb exploded on February 13 of this year. One of those arrested was the first secretary of the Russian embassy in Qatar. He had diplomatic immunity and was expelled from the country in March.
On June 30, a Qatari court sentenced the other two men to life in prison. Their lawyers appealed. The appeals court met in Doha on July 21 but rescheduled the hearing for July 29. On July 23, Igor Ivanov, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, flew to Qatar to meet with Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. That was Ivanov's second trip to Qatar since the arrest of the Russians. On July 29, the appeals court refused to hear the Russians' appeal. The secretary of the Qatari appeals court told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the court upheld the life prison sentence.
The Russian Foreign Ministry repeated claimed the innocence of the men and demanded their release and return to Russia.
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