Moscow, Dec 15: Convicted Chechen warlord Salman Raduyev has died in prison while serving a life sentence for terrorism and murder, Russia's justice ministry said today.
Raduyev died in a high security hard labour camp in the Perm region, about 1200 km east of Moscow, a ministry spokeswoman said.
"At the present time, the exact cause of death is being
established," Deputy Justice Minister Yuri Kalinin was quoted
as saying by Interfax news agency.
No further details were immediately available. Raduyev
was born in 1967, making him either 34 or 35 when he died.
Raduyev became the first prominent Chechen rebel warlord
to be prosecuted by Russian authorities. Last december, a
Court in southern Russian sentenced him to life imprisonment
after he was found guilty of terrorism and murder.
The charge against Raduyev, who was arrested in March 2000, focussed on a January 1996 raid on the southern Russian town of Kizlyar in which 78 people were killed. He and other
rebels took hundreds of hostages at a local hospital and used
some of them as human shields.
Raduyev maintained he was taking orders from the late
rebel president Dzhokhar Dudayev when he led the raid, which
came at the end of the first Chechen war.
Bureau Report
