THE TRIAL WILL BE SOON

Preliminary results of the investigation into the Moscow bombings: out of nine suspects, two will stand trial

...of the exercises in Ryazan in September 1999 by Lev Semyonovich Levinson.

• — Your commission has been working for over a year. Have you managed to investigate much?
  — The commission did not initially set out to conduct an operational investigation. Not because we weren't interested. It was clear that we would not get access to the materials of the criminal case, and conducting our own private investigation was beyond our power. And there was no need.

• — Then what were you doing?
  — In order to draw any conclusions, it is necessary to have the most complete information possible. We wanted all the contradictions that existed in official publications on this matter and in the statements of officials to be minimized. In fact, there were many such contradictions. And we tried to resolve them as best we could.

...Yuri Shchekochikhin. However, I will say right away, I do not link these deaths with the work of our commission. Official bodies are obliged to provide answers to parliamentary inquiries, but they do so reluctantly. I understand that there is an investigative secret, there are personal data of operatives. But the most important thing is a reluctance to share information. Today we cannot boast of an abundance of data. But on the other hand, we were able to collect a lot of assessments, observations, processed a lot of analytical materials and soon we can present a fairly interesting report.

• — Are there any unexpected findings unknown to the general public in Russia?
  — Yes. Let me give you just one example. Serious Western publications immediately after the explosions noted the clear benefit that the Kremlin would receive in this situation.

• — It was written that the "director" of this performance is an oligarch close to the Kremlin, BAB. That's how it's written — "BAB", the abbreviation has gained international currency. Do you adhere to this version?
  — No. But we are analyzing it along with those supported by Boris Berezovsky, and those to which Russian security forces lean. So far, we cannot give preference to any of them. The prosecutor's office's version also causes us serious doubts.

• — But after all, some of the criminals have been arrested, an investigation is underway.
  — We worked with the victims in the Volgodonsk case, talked with their lawyers. The commission is not sure that the people who committed the terrorist attack in Volgodonsk are involved in the bombings in Moscow.

• — And the version "FSB blows up Russia"?

• — And didn't Berezovsky help?
  — He had one time relation to the financing of "Liberal Russia". So the phone, perhaps, was partially paid for by them. And then, why be cunning — in July last year at the Baltschug Hotel, the Foundation for Civil Liberties organized a video link with London. A meeting of our commission was held at the Baltschug. We went for it because we had no other opportunity to hear the so-called testimony of Achimez Gochiyayev (one of the main suspects in the case of the Moscow apartment bombings — Ed.) we didn't have.

• — Why "so-called"?
  — Because we never managed to see them. Only a transcript, typed by someone unknown. We were promised the tapes for a long time, but more than a year has passed, and things are still where they were.

Chronicle of Events

Just a year after the explosions on Guryanov Street and Kashirskoye Highway, FSB officers stated: all participants in the terrorist attacks have been identified, they are being sought. Using the media, the special services made public the details of the preparation and execution of the terrorist attack. In particular, it became known how FSB officers tracked down one of the main participants in the mining — Achimez Gochiyayev. It turns out that he arrived in Moscow under the name of his distant relative who died in a car accident. It was he who rented basements in four residential buildings. Here, fortunately for the special services, the terrorist made an unpardonable mistake: he registered the lease of one of the basements in his real name.

Preparation for the explosions began in May 1999. The terrorists brought six tons of explosives to Moscow. It was prepared in Urus-Martan, then transported to the Stavropol Territory. In order not to arouse suspicion, it was placed in sugar bags. Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, Timur Batchaev, and Adam Dekkushev "packaged" the explosives in Kislovodsk. A Mercedes tractor with the deadly cargo set off for Moscow on September 5. Here the "sugar" was distributed among the rented basements. The clockwork mechanism in the house on Guryanov Street was set for midnight, on Kashirskoye Highway — for five in the morning.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks, when it was possible to establish how the explosives were delivered to Moscow, massive checks of all non-residential premises in the capital being rented out began. This made it possible to discover two more places prepared for explosions.

The special services managed to collect the most complete information about Gochiyayev. Until 1997, he was a very successful construction businessman. Then he got together with Wahhabis and handed over half a million dollars earned "for the fight against the infidels." He studied at the Khattab camp, and in his native Karachaevsk he opened "Muslim Society No. 3". Here he was an imam: he preached the ideas of Wahhabism among young people.

In February 1999, Gochiyayev was detained. He spent two months in a pre-trial detention center in Karachay-Cherkessia. And it was there, where Gochiyayev preached, that one of the imam's students was killed during the detention. After that, all suspicious persons and Wahhabi organizations were searched. A large amount of weapons and ammunition was recovered from the caches. All of Imam Gochiyayev's students were also detained.

Two months later, Achimez was released from custody, and he went to Chechnya, where he spent three months with Khattab. Then, having formed a sabotage group, he left for Moscow to prepare for the explosions.

In April of this year, the Prosecutor General's Office completed the investigation into the terrorist attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk. The investigation established: Emir Al-Khattab, Abu Umar, Achimez Gochiyayev, Hakim Abaev, Denis Saitakov, Zaur and Timur Batchaev, Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, Adam Dekkushev were involved in the explosions. The organizers of the crimes are foreign citizens Khattab and Umar. Both were liquidated by special services during a counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya. Zaur Batchaev also died there. His brother Timur was destroyed on the territory of Georgia. Gochiyayev and Abaev remain at large for now. Both have been put on the international wanted list.

Krymshamkhalov and Dekkushev are arrested and are in one of the Moscow pre-trial detention centers. They are accused of participating in an illegal armed formation, terrorism, premeditated murder, illegal manufacture and storage of weapons.

The victims (and there are about 2,000 of them) have already familiarized themselves with the materials of the preliminary investigation. Now the defendants are getting acquainted with the case. As soon as this procedure is finished, the case will be transferred to court.

Igor KOROLKOV

Sidebar (fragments):

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