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Chechen President Denies Link to Criticâ€™s Killing

29 April 2010 18:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Chechnyaâ€™s president denied accusations by the Austrian government that he was implicated in the shooting death of a Chechen whistleblower in Vienna last year, saying Thursday that he was the victim of a smear campaign, APA reports quoting The New York Times.

Austriaâ€™s public prosecutorâ€™s office announced Tuesday that a yearlong investigation had found that the whistleblower, Umar S. Israilov, had been killed on a Vienna street in a botched kidnapping ordered by the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov.

But Mr. Kadyrov said that the killers, whoever they were, had carried out the murder in an effort to frame him.

â€œExcuse me, but it would be so stupid and cruel to kill a person in the city center,â€ Mr. Kadyrov said Thursday at a news conference in Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya. â€œWhy would I need to do this?â€

Mr. Kadyrov made the comments after The New York Times published articles this week about the Austrian investigation into the killing of Mr. Israilov, who was once one of Mr. Kadyrovâ€™s bodyguards.

Mr. Israilov fled Russia for Europe in 2006 and filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, accusing Mr. Kadyrov of participating in kidnappings, torture and murder as part of a Kremlin-blacked strategy to quash a simmering separatist movement in Chechnya.

In interviews with The Times before his death, Mr. Israilov said he was visited by a Chechen agent claiming to be from Mr. Kadyrov, who threatened to kill him and his family if he did not withdraw his complaint from the European Court.

Austrian authorities have jailed three Chechen exiles suspected of involvement in the murder of Mr. Israilov, who was gunned down in January last year as he left a Vienna grocery store, carrying bags of Gummi bears and M&Mâ€™s for his three young children.

At the news conference, Mr. Kadyrov suggested that Mr. Israilov, who was once involved with the insurgency in Chechnya, was killed as part of a blood feud.

â€œHe killed people, committed crimes and had dozens of enemies,â€ he said. â€œBlood feuds in the Caucasus are no joke, not empty words.â€

Nevertheless, Mr. Kadyrov said that it was â€œfashionableâ€ these days to blame him for all manner of crimes.

â€œIf someoneâ€™s cow goes missing,â€ he said, â€œit is acceptable to immediately blame Kadyrov.â€

Mr. Israilov was not the first of Mr. Kadyrovâ€™s opponents to meet a violent end. Human rights activists, journalists and potential political rivals have been slain in Chechnya and Moscow and as far away as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The Kremlin, which has provided Mr. Kadyrov unwavering support in his effort to bring stability to Chechnya after years of war, has been silent, at least publicly, on the persistent claims against him.

And, according to Mr. Kadyrov, he is exceedingly popular with the people of Chechnya as well.

â€œYou can ask around on the streets,â€ he said. â€œIf 99 percent of the population does not support me, then I will tender my resignation.â€