DOHA, 24 December 2004 — Qatar said yesterday it would hand over to Moscow two Russians serving prison sentences in its jails at Russia’s request.
A Foreign Ministry official, quoted on the state’s Qatar News Agency, did not name the Russians. Moscow has been asking Doha to hand over two Russian intelligence agents sentenced to life imprisonment this year for killing an exiled Chechen rebel leader.
The official said the Russians would serve the rest of their jail terms in Russia.
He said Qatar and Moscow had signed an accord about this issue.
In June, a Qatari court said Anatoly Belaskhov and Vasily Bogachev had killed Chechen rebel chief Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and two others with a car bomb, acting on an order from the Russian leadership to assassinate him.
Russia had at the time denied the men were responsible.
The attack shocked Qatar which prides itself on its security and low crime rate, and sparked a diplomatic row between the US ally and Russia.
