Russian agents held in Qatar face death penalty

[Rain]

By Tom Parfitt in Moscow

(Filed: 11/04/2004)

Russia has intensified efforts to free two of its foreign intelligence
operatives jailed in Qatar on suspicion of killing a former Chechen
president, as the realisation dawns that they may face the death penalty
if convicted.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry in Moscow said that it was doing
"everything within our power" to secure their release before the
prosecutions begin. The alleged assassins are accused of detonating a
car bomb that killed Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev as he left a mosque in the
Qatari capital, Doha, in February.

Their trial is scheduled to begin this week. New legislation introduced
in Qatar just days after the men were captured stipulated the death
penalty or life in prison for "anyone founding, organising or managing a
group or organisation to commit a terror act". It defined terrorism as
an action that employs violence to "disrupt order and public peace and
jeopardises the safety of society".

Alexander Filonik, a lecturer in sharia law at the Institute of Oriental
Studies in Moscow, said: "If the men are tried and found guilty under
the new anti-terror law, the death penalty would certainly apply."

Russian diplomats remain locked in "delicate" negotiations with their
Qatari counterparts over the agents' release, according to foreign
ministry officials. Last week, the Qatari foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad
bin Jasim bin Jabir Al Thani, told a news conference in Doha: "Both
Russians are at the disposal of our court and only the court can decide
what happens with them in the future.

"I don't know if the Russians will be prosecuted according to the
recently adopted law which allows for the death penalty for terrorism,
or whether they will be shown lenience. Let's wait for what the court says."

Mr Yandarbiyev had lived in Qatar for nearly three years with his
family, even though Russia had lodged a request for his extradition. He
was believed to have raised funds for separatists in breakaway Chechnya.

Moscow denies that the pair had anything to do with the car bombing,
saying that they were investigating sources of al-Qaeda funding and did
not breach international law.

However, Qatari police are said to have found electric cable identical
to that used in the car bomb in a car traced to the Russians. Two
witnesses also claim to have seen the pair standing near the former
Chechen leader's vehicle shortly before the explosion that killed him.

The men were seized by Qatari officers who broke down the gates of a
Russian diplomatic residence in Doha and stormed the building on the
night of February 18. Igor Ivanov, Russia's foreign minister at the time
of the arrest, said the seizure was a "provocation" and said that the
Qataris "used weapons and brute force".

The United States later admitted providing "minor technical assistance"
to the Qatari authorities: a small group of explosives specialists who
examined the material used to blow up Mr Yandarbiyev's car. American
diplomats said no help was given during the arrest.

Officially, the Russian security services have not assassinated anybody
abroad since 1959. The foreign ministry greeted their arrest in February
with silence and only grudgingly admitted that the two accused were
intelligence officials. Doha has refused to confirm details of the
charges against the two men and tried to hold a pre-trial detention
hearing in secret, according to their lawyers.

Russia's Izvestia newspaper reported last week that both Qatari and
Russian negotiators were trying to reach an agreement that held true to
Qatari law while preserving relations between the two countries. Lawyers
acting for the alleged assassins say they have been prevented from
meeting the men to discuss their defence. Dmitry Afanasiev, one of the
legal team, said last week that they have not been shown the full file
detailing the accusations.

"A bad copy of a small portion of the file, in handwritten Arabic, was
recently provided to our local counsel in Qatar but I am yet to see
these papers," he said. "Not only Russian and British attorneys but even
local Qatari counsel were repeatedly denied access to the captured
Russian citizens."

Mr Afanasiev said the arrest and treatment of the men demonstrated
"flagrant violations of due process and internationally accepted
standards of justice".

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.



Seems like too much honour to executioners who didnt think twice before taking someone else's life.

R

[Balamut]

Life? You'r talking about importance of every single life here? Is it you, Rain?
In other posts you'r talking on the other level. Much, much more cynical.

[IndependentObserver]

What importance of every single life are you speaking about?! In reality all politicians are cynical. Let’s take the example of Yandarbiyev’ case. The guilty of Russian agents is really difficult to prove; otherwise they would be convicted long ago. Even Qatari prosecutors and judges of the Russians’ case pointed out that there is no direct evidence against Russian intelligence agents. They assume that representatives of Al-Qaeda may stand over the murder of the former Chechen leader, who has become “waste material” for this terrorist network. According to some data of Qatari police Yandarbiyev realized it too. And he tried to meet Russian agents in order to enlist their aid in the case of his security in exchange for information about financial sources of terrorists, operated in Chechnya, Kashmir and elsewhere. It’s supposed that people of Osama bin Laden found it out and Al-Qaeda decided to get rid of the traitor, shifting the blame for it on to Russians. I think Yandarbiyev has been killed right after the meeting with his new friends, where they discussed terms of data exchange. And although both the UN and the USA had officially listed Yandarbiyev as an international terrorist for his alleged ties to Al-Qaeda, Qatari court may find Russians guilty for murder through terrorism. I should remind you that a new Qatari law imposes the death penalty for such kind of crime or life in prison for anyone involved with organizing a terrorist group. That’s the way it is!

[Rain]

This is rubbish. There is no link to Al-Qaeda. When Chechnya got its independence, they didnt recognize Taliban govt ( at the time when US did. Before 9/11. Heh ).

The two Russian terrorists not only had all the incriminating evidence on them, but have long ago confessed to being guilt of this terrorist act, ordered by Ivanov, hence Putin.

R

[Vic07]

Rain, from now on I will reffer to you as 'terrorist'. This is because YOU, being your unintelligent, incompetent self, stand up for them. You are also a coward, and you are a ëèöåìåð BECAUSE you hide in you canada and critisize the RF while you have NO idea what you are talking about. That other terrorist, the one killed in qatar, deserved to die and I am glad that he died, its called justice, however, he his death is absolutely useless to the RF. I doubt that we have killed him. So, terrorist, I hope that sometime, somewhere, someone will beat your face in and hit you on the head hard enough to make you comprehend that we, the RF, are HELPING Chechnya and that Chechen people are HAPPY about it. The other terrorists that try to stop this process are DOOMING the 82% of Chechnya that wants Russia there. The RF is a DEMOCRATIC state, if the majority wants us, we will stay, THAT IS IT! I will allow our resident terrorist reply to amuse us all.
Vic

[Rain]

I will advice you not to call anyone on this forum a terrorist, for your existence here will be short-lived if you choose to do so.

If you disagree with someone's point of view, it does not give you the right to offend them personally.

The conflict in Chechnya is very difficult, and can be compared to the Nazi holocaust in its proportions. Your attempts to justify mass terrorism against a democratic Chechen republic and its people under the propaganda of "terrorism" will not pass here. Anyone with a half-brain will understand what this war is about. This is not the first time Russia tries to subjugate/exterminate the Chechen people, the practice has been historical both in Tsarist and Soviet Russia. You have accused this small republic of being bandits, fascist-supporters, and today terrorists to justify an atrocious and ugly campaign of colonial mass terror spanning 3 centuries, a campaign that more than once brought an almost complete extermination of Chechen people. Your cheuvenism has caused enough deaths worldwide, and if any dissent in Russia will be forcefully shutup by the KGB, you can be sure that I will not be silent about the crimes that Russian government is perpetrating against a small Caucasian republic that dared to stand up for its rights. I have no intent to live in an authoritarian state, and I sympathize with the Russian people, who will only be happy the day that true democracy is born in Russia.

The day that Chechnya becomes independent will signal a new era for the Russian people, an era of self-determination and separation from its brutal colonial past. A victory for Chechen people is a victory for Russian people, it is here that a key to freedom of Russia lies.

Your chuevenistic views are tolerated on this forum, so return the favor and tolerate other views. This is not Soviet Union.

R

[Vic07]

Terrorist, I am now going to ignore any more of your posts about Chechnya, as you clearly do not understand the situation. I call 'bandits' the MINORITY that does not want to be a part of Russia. They are de-evolving and they are taking the rest of the Chechen people down with them. Let me tell you a little story: My neighbour from the apartment above is a pretty good friend of mine who's family left Chechnya in the 1990's, his name is Tengis (or Tengys, dont know how to spell in Russian). His family got compensation for their 3-room flat lost in the bombing and are now moving back to Chechnya this summer. We get along very well even though I am pure Russian and he is Chechen (except his grandpa is from Dagestan). Well, he is happy, and he says that his family is happy in the changes that are happening, his family is the majority of the Chechen people. By the way, their quality of life has improved, cause now they went from a 3-room 69m apartment in a paneled building to a 3-room 87m apartment in a new building in a better neighbourhood in Grozny. So the Chechen people have gotten the victory you are talking about, and so have the Russian people, which, include the Chechens, as we are all the same, we live in one wonderfull country. The only people left unhappy are the terrorist bandits that want to ruin life for the rest of Chechnya.

A side note: Those bandits are giving the Chechen people a bad name, because of which they have gained hatred against them, there is also a minority of people throughout Russia that dont like them, I was one of them when I lived in Canada (Because of the image that the Canadian media gave), I thought that ALL Chechen people were bad and that all of them needed to be killed, however, when I moved back to Russia and went to Chechnya and saw everything for myself, saw the good and open treatment by the Chechen people, the welcomeness and just talking to them, I understood that this is not the case and that the Chechen people are good, and only a small minority are bandits that need to be wiped out. I have also changed the views of some people at my school that thought the same way I did before, and its also interesting that now another guy that didnt like Chechens too much is now good friends with me and Tengis.
Vic