Maskhadov 'was killed by his guard'

The results of a ballistic examination of a bullet extracted from the body of Aslan Maskhadov, the late president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, were announced at a court hearing of the case of the Chechen separatist leader's associates on 27 October. Experts claim that Mr Maskhadov's own guard shot him.

This is what a source in Chechnya's law enforcement agencies said. According to him, Maskhadov's guard himself said that he did not remember if he had shot the president.

"The results of a ballistic examination of the bullet extracted from the head of the killed Ichkeria leader were announced at yesterday's trial of Vakhid Murdashev, Viskhan Khajimuratov, Iles Iriskhanov, and Skandarbek Yusupov detained on 8 March this year in Tolstoy-Yurt, Chechnya, during a special operation for neutralisation of Aslan Maskhadov," the interlocutor said. "Experts claim that the bullet that killed him was shot from the handgun belonging to his guard, Maskhadov's own nephew Viskhan Khajimuratov."

"During his interrogation, Khajimuratov said that he did not remember if he had shot his uncle or not. If his evidence is to be trusted, a powerful blast occurred during the onslaught, so he lost consciousness, and when he came to himself, he saw dead Maskhadov near him. At the same time, he confirmed that Aslan Maskhadov had asked to shoot him dead if serious danger occurred or in the event of a serious wound, in order to prevent him from being taken prisoner," said the source.

According to the law enforcer, there were two gunshot wounds in the body of the killed Ichkeria president: one in his chest, and the other, fatal, one in his head.

Until very recently, official sources claimed that the Ichkeria president had died because of a barotrauma caused by the explosive device detonated by the special unit storming his shelter. However, right after Aslan Maskhadov's death, Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said the Ichkeria president had been killed "accidentally," by his bodyguard, Caucasian Knot's correspondent reports.

The results of the examination not only directly indicate the one who killed the president of Ichkeria, but also disprove the version of the Regional Headquarters for the Counter-terrorist Operation in the North Caucasus which said that Aslan Maskhadov had been destroyed in the course of a special operation conducted by the Russian Federal Security Service's anti-terrorist centre. The Federal Security Service maintained that Maskhadov had died of a barotrauma caused by an explosion with which the special unit had wanted to stun him. The probe also questions the lawfulness of the decision by the Prosecutor General's Office not to give out Aslan Maskhadov's body to his relatives for burial.

The matter is that Article 16 of the law on terrorism provides for a special procedure only for the "burial of terrorists who die during an interception of a terrorist action." In this case, however, the special services did not intercept any terrorist action.

The Prosecutor General's Office disagrees that these circumstances of the Ichkeria leader's death can influence the decision not to give out his body though.

"It is of no importance who killed him," the Prosecutor General's Office noted. "Maskhadov was on the wanted list for organising the terrorist act in Beslan. His arrest as a terrorist was authorised by a district court in North Ossetia. While detained, he and his guards put up resistance. Therefore, Maskhadov's body has been treated according to the law — it was buried without his relatives being notified of the place of burial," the Prosecutor General's Office is quoted by Kommersant newspaper as saying.

• More details of Maskhadov's death