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Aslan Maskhadov is Identified
// And sent to Beslan
Identification
Yesterday, the process of idenetification of former Ichkeria president Aslan Maskhadov was completed at the 124th Central Laboratory of the Defense Ministry in Rostov-on-Don. Head of North Caucasus General Prosecutor’s Office Investigation Department Nikolay Khazikov said that Maskhadov’s body will not be delivered to his relatives for burial, and that all materials, linked with Ichkeria leader will be directed to the group investigating the seizure of School No.1 in Beslan.
Let us remind you that Aslan Maskhadov was killed March 8, during the FSB operation in Chechen village Tolstoy-Yurt. According to the official information, the Ichkerian leader, who was hiding in the basement of a private house on Suvorova street, died of an explosion by means of which Spetsnaz tried to make an entrance into the basement. FSB director Nikolay Patrushev immediately reported the success of the operation to President Vladimir Putin, however the latter requested that a thorough identification of the corpse be carried out in order to exclude all possibilities of a mistake. Maskhadov’s body was delivered to the military base in Khankala, where he was identified by captive rebels, some of his relatives, and even Chechnya military commandant Grigory Fomenko, who had known Maskhadov personally from the first Chechen war. However, that was not enough – Maskhadov’s body was sent to a special laboratory in Rostov-on-Don.
Yesterday, head of North Caucasus General Prosecutor’s Office press service Sergey Prokopov told Kommersant that 16 research techniques were used for identification at the laboratory. Experts had taken samples of different tissues for comparative analysis with samples of blood and hair of Maskhadov’s relatives. Yesterday, identity of the deceased was established 100 percent. According to Prokopov, now the materials will be sent to the group investigating the terrorist act in Beslan School No.1. Kommersant has information that it will stop criminal prosecution of Maskhadov due to his death.
“The case against Maskhadov on charges of organization of armed rebellion has been started in February 2000,” Prokopov explained. “In September, a group of so called Ichkeria’s officials – Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, Akhmed Zakaev and Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev – have already been prosecuted on these charges. The whole time Maskhadov had been wanted by police as the organizer of the rebellion, however, soon afterwards he was on retrieval by the group, investigating the hostage taking of School No.1 in Beslan.”
Let us remind you that Maskhadov refused any implications of the school seizure and even promised to bring an action against Shamil Basaev, who had admitted the responsibility for the terrorist act. Nevertheless, in December of last year one of the district departments in North Ossetia, which was addressed by the General Prosecutor’s office, issued sanctions for the arrest of both Maskhadov and Basaev on charges of terrorism act organization.
The indictment against Ichkerian leaders was primarily based on the evidence given by Nurpasha Kulaev, the only Beslan school hostage taker remaining alive. “Kulaev openly named Maskhadov as the organizer of the attack,” Khazikov said. Moreover, he added that according to the law on terrorism control, Maskhadov’s relatives will not be receiving the body.
Article 16 of the Law on Terrorism Control mentions that “burial of terrorists, who died as result of suppression of terrorist act, must be carried out according to the procedure established by the RF Government. Their bodies are not subject to being released, and information regarding their burial place is not to be issued.”
Igor Trunov, lawyer and author of three books about the law on terrorism control, who had also participated in the writing of the draft of this law, told Kommersant that the above mentioned procedure was added to the law in November 2002 as an amendment. “This rule does not correspond with the constitutional principles, and may be appealed against,” he added.
He also said that on March 20, 2003 the government of Russia passed a rule regarding the order of burial of persons, who died during suppression of terrorism act. According to the rule, the burial is to be carried out by special forces (unspecified by the statute). “These special forces must not give out information about the burial place, if he was a Russian citizen,” Trunov emphasized. “However, if he was a foreign citizen, the special forces must notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and civilian registry office at his last place of residence. Such actions are subject to be appealed against by the relatives of the deceased, like in Maskhadov’s case. First they must address the prosecutor’s office with a request to be given his body. Their request will be denied, in reference to the rule, mentioned above. Then they must file an appeal to the court against illegal actions of the prosecutor’s office. The court will also deny their appeal. Only after this they can address the Constitutional Court, which in its turn may put a question of how the articles of the Law on Terrorism Control relate with other laws.”
Article 14, of the Criminal Code (presumption of innocence) mentions that nobody can be returned guilty unless he has been convicted by the court. And Article 49 of the RF Constitution says that “each person indicted with criminal charges is considered not guilty, until his guilt has been proved in accordance with procedure, prescribed by the federal law, and has been established guilty by the court sentence, coming into legal force.”
The Criminal Department
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 01, 2005
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