Chechen Envoy Is Still Free as Moscow Seeks His Return

Russia on Wednesday pushed on with its struggle to extradite a Chechen rebel envoy to face terrorist charges in Moscow, even as a London court ruled that he could remain free on bail, paid by activist actress Vanessa Redgrave.

Denmark had rebuffed an extradition bid last month, claiming that Russian authorities had failed to provide sufficient evidence against Ahmed Zakayev, the representative of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov.

Zakayev, 43, was arrested last week when entering Britain with Redgrave, a supporter of the Chechen cause who asserts that Zakayev will be killed if he returns to Moscow.

The extradition bid has become a key part of Moscow’s effort to deflect Western criticism of its action in Chechnya by depicting the fighters in the separatist Russian republic as international terrorists.

A British court Wednesday ordered Zakayev, who was freed on $78,000 bail Friday, to appear at an extradition hearing next month. The judge in the case ordered that details of Zakayev’s address be suppressed.

After the hearing, Zakayev denied Russia’s accusation that he had committed terrorists acts between 1995 and 2000.

“I can submit to a lie detector test or swear on the Koran. Not one of these crimes has any basis,” he said. “It is not a coincidence that I chose to come to Britain. Unless there is a political decision, there can be no discussion of my being turned over.”

Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said Zakayev had committed serious crimes. He claimed that Zakayev fired a pistol at the hand of a man who refused to cooperate with the rebels, shooting off three fingers.

“And all this has been proven by medical documents. It is in the forensic report,” Ustinov said on Russian television.

“Make no mistake about it: Hundreds and thousands of people were wounded and killed as a result of the crimes committed by Zakayev,” he said.

Zakayev and Maskhadov are seen as relatively moderate Chechen separatists; however, a U.S. official in Moscow recently backed Russia’s view that Maskhadov should be excluded from any peace talks, describing him as “damaged goods.”

In comments to journalists Tuesday, Zakayev argued that the only path to peace was for Europe to pressure Russia to agree to talks with the separatists and later to send in peacekeeping forces.

Until Sept. 11, Russia had limited success in depicting Chechen rebels as international terrorists. But since then, Western countries have become concerned about links between militant groups such as Al Qaeda and some Chechen rebel commanders, notably the militant Khattab, formerly the main funnel for funds flowing to the separatists. Russian authorities claimed responsibility for his fatal poisoning in March.

Since Chechen rebels took hundreds of people hostage in a Moscow theater in October, the Kremlin has sought to portray life in Chechnya as returning to normal. The hostage-taking left 129 captives dead, all but two from the gas used by Moscow before troops stormed the theater.

In Chechnya on Wednesday, nearly 400 pro-Moscow Chechens supported Kremlin plans for a new constitution and presidential elections in the republic. Speaking on Echo of Moscow radio, Zakayev said the congress was political in nature and would change nothing.

A prominent liberal politician in Moscow, Boris Y. Nemtsov, called for peace talks with rebel figures who had no blood on their hands. He warned that if Russian troops still occupied the republic, Chechens wouldn’t support a new constitution.