Chechens killed in Istanbul in the name of Russian intel, prosecutor claims

Burcu PURTUL UÇAR Hürriyet - ISTANBUL

Ali Osaev was killed execution-style in front of his house in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu district on Feb 26, 2009. HÜRRİYET photo

Five Chechens who were killed in Istanbul between 2009 and 2011 were done so in the name of Russia’s intelligence agency, according to a public prosecutor's indictment in the case.Bakırköy Public Prosecutor Ahmet Demirhüyük demanded aggravated life sentences for three murder suspects, Temur Makhauri, Alexander Zharkov and Nadim Ayupov, on charges of premeditated murder.In his indictment, Demirhüyük noted Russia was in pursuit of Chechen opposition leaders due to the war in Chechnya. Russia is also in a struggle with Chechen groups within Turkey, the prosecutor said.The suspects are accused in the indictment of killing Ali Osaev, the Istanbul representative of the Caucasus Emirate, designated as a terrorist organization by Russia and the United States, on Feb. 26, 2009. Additionally, the execution-style murder of three Chechens, Berg-Hadj Musayev, Zaurbek Amriyev and Rustam Altemirov, on Sept. 16, 2011 in a parking lot in Istanbul was committed by two people who work for Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and entered Turkey with fake passports under the names Alexander Zharkov and Nadim Ayupov, according to the prosecutor.Georgian citizen Temur Makhauri, who is currently under arrest in Istanbul’s Maltepe prison, killed Osaev and later attended his funeral ceremony, the prosecutor claimed in his indictment.According to the prosecutor, Makhauri prepared an explosive-loaded truck that was used to assassinate Shamil Basayev, leader of the Chechen rebel movement, in July 2006. Makhauri was also accused of providing the weapon in a failed assassination attempt that targeted Shamsuddin Batukayev, a Muslim scholar and a leader in the Chechen separatist movement in the 1990s, in Istanbul in October 2011.The first hearing of the trail into the murders is scheduled to be held March 3.