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Mystery Remains over Death of Chechen

DUBAI — Former Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev, who police claim was shot dead, is recovering in an intensive care, his family claims.

Despite police stating several times that Yamadayev died near his apartment in Jumeirah Beach Residence on March 28, doubts still remain.

On Wednesday, the victim’s brother Isa Yamadayev, who flew to Dubai soon after the accident, said that the former ‘Vostok’ battalion leader was recovering. “He is feeling better,” Isa Yamadayev told the Russian Interfax news agency on Wednesday.

His comments follow weeks of police assurances that the victim had died of his injuries and was buried at the Al Quoz cemetery on March 30.

Yury Federov, a Russian expert based in Prague, said that more evidence was needed.

“There is still a mystery over whether he died or was merely wounded,” he said. “Perhaps this is a protection against further attacks.”

Isa Yamadayev told Interfax that his brother was in an intensive care unit, but did not specify the location of
the hospital.

Insiders at Rashid Hospital, where Dubai Police have a permanent presence, said that Yamadayev had not been checked into the trauma ward.

On Sunday Dubai Police said that Adam Delimkhanov, former deputy prime minister in Chechnya, was behind the murder. The Russian Prosecutor’s office have said that it is a breach of the constitution to extradite a member of the Russian Federation.

In an interview with the Khaleej Times on Wednesday, Lt.-Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, said that they would press ahead with attempts to bring him in.

“We have already approached Interpol for the arrest of Delimkhanov, irrespective of the Russian President’s or Prosecutor’s refusal to extradite Delimkhanov to the Dubai Police,” he said.

A source at the Interpol office at the Ministry of Interior confirmed the request had been received.

In his final interview to The Times newspaper, Sulim Yamdayev said that his name had been put on a death list and a hit squad would be dispatched to assassinate him.

Last year dissident news site Chechenpress published a “hit list” of 2,000 Chechen exiles allegedly leaked from the Chechen government.

According to Tanya Lokshina, Moscow Director of Human Rights Watch, Yamadayev’s name was on the list.

“But this could have just been a list fabricated by the enemies of [Chechen President] Ramzan Kadyrov to discredit the regime,” she said.

“But it is equally likely that such a list exists somewhere.”


news@khaleejtimes.com

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