Kommersant

INCIDENTS

Two to be prosecuted for the murder of 246 people

The case of the apartment bombings is finished

terrorism

Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Adam Dekkushev will stand trial when they finish reading their multi-volume case

Yesterday, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia announced the completion of the investigation into a series of terrorist attacks committed in the fall of 1999 in Moscow and Volgodonsk. Only two terrorists—Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Adam Dekkushev—will stand trial, which will most likely take place in closed session on the territory of a pre-trial detention center (SIZO).

As the investigation claimed, the explosions, which claimed the lives of more than 200 people, were carried out by members of Achimez Gochiyayev's group, who called themselves "Mu- [...]"

[...] Yusuf Krymshamkhalov was responsible for the [lethal] cargo in the group. He met Gochiyayev back in 1997 at a militant camp in the Chechen village of Serzhen-Yurt. Krymshamkhalov, who was born and raised in the Stavropol Territory, had good connections with local law enforcement: one of the employees of the Stavropol prosecutor's office was a distant relative, and an officer of the Kislovodsk GAI (traffic police), Stanislav Lyubichev, was a friend. It was Lyubichev [...]

[...] [the cargo] was met by Achimez Gochiyayev, who registered at the "Altai" hotel using a passport in the name of Laipanov. Then the hexogen was transported in "Gazelle" vans to three addresses—Guryanova Street, Kashirskoye Highway, and Borisovskiye Prudy. On September 9 and 13, 1999, of the three explosions planned by the terrorists, two occurred, claiming the lives of 228 people. Another explosives warehouse in a basement with timers already running was successfully discovered [...]

Ruslan Magayaev, and in March 2000, almost the entire Krymshamkhalov group—namesakes Aslan and Murat Bastanov, Muratbi Bayramukov, Muratbi Tuganbaev, and Achimez Gochiyayev's brother-in-law Taikan Frantsuzov. They were sentenced by the Stavropol Regional Court to prison terms ranging from 9 to 15 years. Gochiyayev, Krymshamkhalov, and Dekkushev hid in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia. The rest fled to Chechnya.

Terrorists Identified the Policeman

The Moscow and Volgodonsk Bombings

• Fifteen people were prepared for sabotage work by field commander Khattab at his 'Kavkaz' base in Chechnya.
• Khattab and his right hand, Abu al-Walid, who received about $700,000 from his 'sponsors from Muslim organizations,' were the masterminds of the terrorist attacks.
• The terrorists prepared for the bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in Urus-Martan at a mineral fertilizer plant:
  • Hexogen, TNT, aluminum powder, and saltpeter were mixed in a concrete mixer and packaged into sugar bags.
  • Later, another explosives production plant was organized by them in the Karachay settlement of Mirny.
• From Urus-Martan and the KChR (Karachay-Cherkess Republic), the hexogen was sent under the guise of sugar to a food base in Kislovodsk.
• The delivery to Kislovodsk was made in a KamAZ truck loaded with the explosive mixture, driven by Ruslan Magayev.
• This truck should not, in principle, have been allowed through the checkpoints because the KamAZ had broken windows and headlights, and the driver had no documents.
• A policeman gave the terrorists the 'green light' for a bag of real sugar.
• In Kislovodsk, the explosives were stored on the territory of 'Realbaza,' whose general director was Musa, Krymshamkhalov's uncle.
• There, it was reloaded into a Mercedes trailer and sent to Moscow.
• According to the documents, the sender of the cargo was the Erken-Shakhar sugar factory.
• The explosives were accompanied by Yusup Krymshamkhalov, Denis Saitakov, Ravil Akhmyarov, and Hakim Abaev.
• In Moscow, the terrorists sent the cargo in a trailer to Volgodonsk.
• The cargo was accompanied by Timur Batchaev, Adam Dekkushev, and Yusup Krymshamkhalov.
• The latter two left the truck in the courtyard of a residential building on September 16 and detonated the explosives placed in it.
• As a result of the explosion in Volgodonsk, 18 people were killed and more than 200 were injured.
• The investigation noted that the residents of Volgodonsk were lucky because their houses were designed for seismic activity.

Subsequent Events and Arrests

• Returning to his homeland, Yusuf Krymshamkhalov began preparing the implementation of the third part of the plan, for which another group of bombers was formed.
• This time, Pyatigorsk, Rostov-on-Don, and Krasnodar were targeted for terrorist attacks.
• In December 1999, in Kislovodsk, Ravil Akhmyarov was detained.
• Denis Saitakov was blown up by a mine while breaking out of Grozny with Shamil Basayev, which was surrounded by federal troops.
• Last year in Georgia, Adam Dekkushev and Yusup Krymshamkhalov were detained as a result of a special operation.
• Timur Batchaev managed to blow himself up with a suicide belt.
• Dekkushev and Krymshamkhalov will be the main defendants in the trial, likely to take place in the Lefortovo SIZO.
• They are charged with terrorism, murder, participation in illegal armed formations, and the storage and manufacture of explosives, facing life sentences.
• Ruslan Magayev, who drove the KamAZ, will apparently appear in the case as a witness.

Terrorists Identified the Policeman

Case of Stanislav Lyubichev

• Yesterday, in the Kislovodsk city court, closing arguments were held in the case of former GAI (traffic police) officer Stanislav Lyubichev.
• He is accused of abuse of power and bribery.
• According to the case materials, in August 1999, the GAI officer helped terrorists bypass a checkpoint in a truck loaded with explosives and received a bag of sugar for this.
• The state prosecutor, Tatyana Sobol, emphasized that the case of the police officer seems simple at first glance, but allowing a vehicle with explosives through without inspection ultimately led to great human casualties from the bombings of residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk.
• The case includes six protocols of interrogations of Adam Dekkushev (one of those accused of terrorism), which describe:
  • The activities of the Karachay jamaat in 1998 and 1999.
  • How the explosives were transported from the settlement of Mirny to Moscow.
• The prosecution believes the witness clearly describes the appearance of the police officer who helped him and Yusup Krymshamkhalov pass through the DPS (road patrol service) post, specifically indicating his height, build, and characteristic facial features.
• From the testimony of the terrorist Krymshamkhalov, it is clear that he intended to negotiate the passage of the cargo through the post without inspection with one of the employees of the Kislovodsk GAI, as the Pyatigorsk division was believed to have too strict rules.
• The prosecutor stated that the testimony of the driver of the malfunctioning KamAZ, Ruslan Magayev, also testifies against the defendant Lyubichev.
• Magayev did not identify him because he did not communicate with him personally and only saw him from the back at a distance of about ten meters.
• As a result, finding the prosecution's case proven, the prosecutor demanded that Stanislav Lyubichev be sentenced to four years and six months of imprisonment, with the deprivation of the right to hold responsible positions for three years.

Defense Arguments

• The defendant's lawyer, Leonid Lyubimov, argued:
  • "It is clear that terrorism and the fight against it concern all residents of Russia."
  • "Since September 1999, all of Russia has been waiting for the terrorists to receive their deserved punishment."
  • He noted that the sudden appearance of information in the media about a policeman named Lyubichev who escorted the terrorists all the way to Moscow suggested "unprecedented pressure on the court."
• The defense attorney further noted that the case was considered non-objectively, with a clear prosecutorial bias.
• He stated that there are practically no witnesses in the case except for the terrorists Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Adam Dekkushev, who face life imprisonment.
• He claimed that the testimony of witness Ruslan Magayev was contradictory and changed throughout the investigation.
• Furthermore, on February 20, after the investigation was completed, a statement by Magayev suddenly appeared in the Kislovodsk FSB department, stating that he remembered Krymshamkhalov had said he made an arrangement with an acquaintance in the GAI named Slavik before the trip.
• This statement was sent to the prosecutor's office and then to the court, where it was attached to the case.

Investigation Update

• He was released from "Lefortovo," where he spent nine months, on his own recognizance and has already managed to testify in court regarding traffic police officer Lyubichev.
• Yusuf Krymshamkhalov's uncle, Musa, in whose warehouse the explosive mixture was stored, could also have ended up in the dock.
• However, after several interrogations, he died — according to the official version, of a heart attack.

According to FSB officers who carried out operational support for the investigation, Dekkushev and Krymshamkhalov actively cooperated with the investigation.

Trial Update

• Thanks to testimony, it was possible to expose the policeman Lyubichev and track down other accomplices of the terrorists.
• The trial will begin once the main defendants familiarize themselves with the case materials, which take up several dozen volumes.
• The state prosecution is expected to be represented by the Prosecutor General of Russia, Vladimir Ustinov, who handled a similar task at last year's trial of Salman Raduev.
• Participants in the investigation stated that none of the members of Achimez Gochiyayev's group had "personal scores with Russia"; neither they nor their relatives suffered during the hostilities in Chechnya and Dagestan, and they were not persecuted for political or religious beliefs.

Legal Proceedings

• A lawyer stated, "did not write this statement himself."
• At the end of his speech, he called all the witness testimony in the case contradictory and unconfirmed by anything.
• Leonid Lyubimov concluded, "We have Lyubichev's testimony, which has not been refuted by anything."
• He asked the court to acquit his client under Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Abuse of official powers") for lack of corpus delicti, arguing that "there is no causal link between the passage of the 'KamAZ' through the post in Kislovodsk and the bombings in Moscow."
• He also asked for acquittal under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Bribe-taking") due to lack of evidence.

Next Steps

• The presiding judge scheduled Stanislav Lyubichev's final statement and the announcement of the verdict for May 14.

ALEKSANDRA LARINTSEVA, Kislovodsk