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Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev (Chechen: Ахмед Халидович Закаев) (born April 26, 1956 in Kazakhstan) is the Foreign Minister of Chechen Republic government-in-exile, appointed by the President Aslan Maskhadov shortly after his 1997 election, and again in 2006 by Abdul Halim Sadulayev.

Political and military career

Akhmed Zakayev, a former actor at Grozny theatre, became a Minister of Culture in the government of Dzokhar Dudayev. After the start of the First Chechen War he left his job and eventually became an important field commander of a Chechen resistance group. His group operated in the South West of the country with its headquarters in the town of Urus-Martan. In August 1996, Zakayev's group took part in the Chechen recapture of Grozny, where he led the attack on the city's Central Railway Station.

His war merits in the mid-1990s paved Zakayev's way to Chechen high politics. As a moderate leader, he represented Chechnya at the peace talks in Khasav-Yurt, which in 1996 brought a peaceful end to the first armed conflict between Moscow and Grozny. After the talks, Zakayev became the Chechen Deputy Prime Minister and a special envoy of President Aslan Maskhadov. At the same time, however, he continued to be the commander of his armed militia group.

In 1999 Zakayev was involved in negotiations with Russian representatives before and during the resumed hostilities. In 2000, after having been wounded, he left for abroad and turned into the most prominent representative of President Maskhadov in Western Europe. He now resides in the United Kingdom.

Exile

Living in London, Zakayev organized the World Chechen Congress in Copenhagen, During the congress, he was accused by Russia of involvement in planning the Moscow theatre siege. He was detained in Denmark on October 30, 2002, under an Interpol warrant filed by Russia, which named him a suspect in the theater siege Zakayev denied involvement in the theater capture. Zakayev was held for five weeks and released due to lack of evidence

On December 7 2002, Zakayev returned to London, where he claimed asylum. The British authorities arrested him and he was released on 50,000 GBP bail, which was paid by Vanessa Redgrave who had traveled with him from Denmark. He was accused by Russian authorities of kidnapping, mass murder, and armed rebellion. He was said to be responsible for cutting fingers of a suspected FSB informer Ivan Solovyov, and for torture of two Russian Orthodox priests. The latter accusation was based on a written testimony by Duk-Vakha Bushuev provided by Russian authorities. However, it appeared that Solovyev had lost his fingers much earlier "apparently to a frostbite", and witness Bushuev escaped from Russia and told to UK court that he was tortured at a Russian army base with electric shocks to extort the false testimony against Zakayev . Therefore, on November 13, 2003, a British judge rejected the Russian request for his extradition, saying that it was politically motivated and that he would be at risk of torture. On November 29 2003, it was announced that he had been granted political asylum in the UK. He has visited Germany without being arrested.

During the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis Zakayev offered to fly to Russia to negotiate with the hostage takers. The siege ended in the bloody confusion before this.

References

1. ^ Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. "Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB." Free Press, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1416551652.

External links

• Judge rejects bid to extradite Chechen rebel leader; The Guardian; 13 November 2003.
• Chechen envoy granted UK asylum; BBC; 29 November 2003
• NATO: Zakaev is terrorist

• 1956 births
• Beslan school hostage crisis
• Chechen field commanders
• Chechen presidential candidates
• Deputy prime ministers of Chechnya
• Living people
• Moscow theater hostage crisis
• People of the Chechen wars
• Politicians of Ichkeria
• Russian dissidents
• Soviet actors