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Russians Protest Chechen Rebel Envoy
November 2, 2002
By JOHN IAMS
MOSCOW (AP) - Demonstrators marched on the Danish Embassy Saturday demanding the extradition of a detained Chechen rebel envoy who was suspected of helping plan the hostage-taking at a Moscow theater.
Akhmed Zakayev, a top aide to Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, was arrested in Denmark at Russia's request on Wednesday at the end of a conference of Chechen rebels and human rights activists.
The congress in Copenhagen was held despite protests by Russia after Chechen separatists seized a Moscow theater on Oct. 23 and held hundreds of hostages inside for 58 hours before special forces stormed the building.
Danish police said they arrested Zakayev after receiving evidence from Russia that he was a suspect in a series of terror attacks between 1996-1999 and was suspected of having helped plan the hostage-taking in Moscow.
``A prompt extradition of Zakayev arrested by the Danish police will promote normal relations with Russia,'' the statement by the People's Party of Russia said. ``The Russian side provided enough documents to ensure Zakayev's handover to the Russian authorities.''
Arkady Baskhayev, a member of parliament, led about 50 demonstrators in front of the Danish Embassy. He said even Zakayev's lawyer confirmed that the claims by the Russians are very serious and ``it would be difficult to defend Zakayev.''
The Russian Prosecutor General's office was preparing more material to be sent to Denmark, including ``undeniable evidence that Zakayev is guilty,'' said Leonid Troshin, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.
Preparation of the material came a day after the Danish justice minister said more evidence was needed to extradite Zakayev.
Chechnya's leading rebel, Shamil Basayev, on Friday claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking attack on the Moscow theater. At least 119 of the hostages were killed, along with nearly all the 50 attackers.
The statement's authenticity could not confirmed.
Meanwhile, Russia's lower house of parliament on Friday approved amendments to the country's media law that would put severe restrictions on press coverage of ``counter-terrorist operations,'' which would include the war in Chechnya and the special forces operation that rescued hundreds of hostages but led to the death of at least 117 others.
The changes are expected to be approved by the upper house and signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law.
On Friday evening, Federal Security Service agents entered the Moscow offices of newspaper that was preparing an account of the hostage crisis that differed from the sequence of events officials have described, the TVS network reported.
TVS reported that the FSB said the raid, in which a computer and server were seized, was linked to an investigation into a May article on a completely different subject, but the editor of the newspaper Versiya believes it involved the planned issue on the hostage crisis to be published Monday.
``I think that in part the appearance of the FSB here today is not only aimed at Versiya, but is a demonstration to other journalists that times are changing and you must be quieter,'' Versiya editor Rustam Arifdzhanov told TVS.
The hostage crisis ended last Saturday when Russian special forces stormed the theater. The vast majority of those inside were felled by a fentanyl-based gas the troops used to incapacitate the terrorists before entering the building.
Some 155 freed hostages, including four children, remained hospitalized Friday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Saturday, citing the Moscow Health Committee. It said 496 people had been discharged from hospitals.
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