DOHA, 1 July 2004 — A Qatari court yesterday found two Russian intelligence officers guilty of the assassination of a Chechen leader — which it said was approved by “Russian leadership” — and sentenced them to life in prison.
A life sentence in Qatar is 25 years.
Judge Ibrahim Saleh Al-Nisf said the two men, Anatoly Belashkov and Vassily Bogachev, assassinated Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a former Chechen president and rebel leader, with the approval of the “Russian leadership” and the plot was coordinated between Moscow and the Russian Embassy in Qatar.
Yandarbiyev, who had been linked to terrorism by Russia, the United States and the United Nations, and two others were killed in a car bombing on Feb. 13 on their way home from a mosque. The attack after Friday prayers wounded his 13-year-old son. The Russian officers were arrested soon after.
The assassination shocked Qatar, which prides itself on its security and low crime rate, and threatened a diplomatic breach between Qatar and Russia.
Russia has denied involvement and has said the defendants were agents gathering intelligence about terrorism.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Jakarta, Indonesia, reiterated Moscow’s stance that the defendants had nothing to do with Yandarbiyev’s killing, the Interfax news agency reported.
“Moscow, as before, considers the two Russian citizens who were detained in Qatar were not involved in the attack on Yandarbiyev. Respecting the judicial procedures of the government of Qatar, our lawyers will appeal with the aim of reconsidering the ruling,” he said.
Lawyer Mohsen Al-Suweidy, head of the defense team that also includes Russian lawyers, said he had expected his clients to be acquitted.
Yesterday’s open hearing, held under tight security, was attended by Yandarbiyev’s wife, Malika, representatives of the Russian Embassy and the Chechen government, and a heavy Russian media presence.
Reading out the verdict, the judge accused the “Russian leadership” of being behind the killing. “In August (2003), the Russian leadership gave the order to kill and liquidate former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev,” charged Nisf.
“The two Russian intelligence officers, who served as diplomats in the Russian Embassy in Qatar” worked out “the assassination details”, prepared “at security services headquarters in Moscow,” the judge added.
He said the court had been “lenient” in not sentencing the pair to death, as the prosecution had called for during the trial which opened in Doha on April 11.
Nisf said Qatari law allowed judges to reduce sentences under certain circumstances. The Russians planned to kill Yandarbiyev outside the mosque but moved the site to reduce casualties, he said.
Malika Yandarbiyev told reporters that she was “satisfied” with the verdict.
Before giving his verdict, the judge asked the Russians if they wanted to say anything. Replying through a translator, they reiterated their not guilty pleas.
They appeared composed when the judge read the verdict. They were immediately taken away by special security forces through a back door and the media did not get a chance to talk to them. Unlike previous hearings, the men were not handcuffed in the courtroom.
Defense lawyers have said their clients were detained and searched unlawfully at their diplomatic residence and were tortured into making confessions.
Akhmed Zakayev, envoy of the Chechen separatist presidency who attended yesterday’s session, said the verdict “proves that the Russian government practices terrorism”.
“While the Russian government accuses me of terrorism, two of its employees are today accused of perpetrating a terrorist act in a foreign country,” Zakayev added.
Yandarbiyev, Chechnya’s acting president in 1996-1997, sought refuge in Qatar after Russia stormed into the rebel province of Chechnya in 1999. Moscow had sought his extradition on charges of terrorism and links to Al-Qaeda.
The murder sparked a diplomatic row between the Gulf state and Russia.
Qatar expelled the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in March after detaining him along with the agents in connection with the February car bombing.
The expulsion announcement came just hours after the return to Doha of two Qatari nationals arrested by Moscow in what was seen as a tit-for-tat move.
