#11
Putin Plot Suspect Has bin Laden Ties
October 22, 2001
By AIDA SULTANOVA
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - The man convicted in a foiled plot to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin is an Iraqi with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, Azerbaijani officials said on Monday.
Revealing new details from the plot that was uncovered in Azerbaijan in November, Araz Gurbanov, spokesman for the National Security Ministry, said Iraqi citizen Kianan Rostam underwent training in Afghanistan and in 1997 reached Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya.
Rostam ``was in contact with people who were at Osama bin Laden's training camps,'' said Gurbanov, who did not link bin Laden to the plot.
The United States believes bin Laden and his network were behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center and has launched retaliatory strikes on Afghanistan, where he is hiding.
Rostam was arrested last November, tried on terrorism charges and sentenced in August to 10 years in prison.
Gurbanov said Rostam, who fought alongside Chechen separatist rebels and married a local woman, came to Azerbaijan in early 2000 on a false Russian passport. Last fall, he began preparing explosive devices at his home in the capital Baku with the help of two unnamed foreigners, Gurbanov said.
Officials learned of the plot to kill Putin during a planned visit there through intercepted telephone conversation with an Afghan citizen who also fought Russian troops in Chechnya. Rostam was then arrested at his home on Nov. 18, 2000, where authorities found 48 radio-controlled explosive devices.
Top Azerbaijani officials first revealed details about the case last week. In Moscow, Kremlin officials have not commented on the case and Russia's security service has said it had ``no such information,'' about the assassination plot.
Still, Gurbanov said Russian officials have confirmed the information to their Azerbaijani colleagues and indicated that Chechen field commanders were involved in the plot.
Russian officials have long argued that Arab extremists like bin Laden were supporting Chechen rebels with money and training. Putin, who has led Russia's military campaign in Chechnya, visited Azerbaijan in January amid unprecedented security.
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