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Wall Street Journal
November 15, 2001
Terrorists Trained by bin Laden Associate Are Convicted
in Russia Bombing Scheme
By GUY CHAZAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MOSCOW -- Five men said to have attended terrorist training camps in Chechnya run by an associate of Osama bin Laden have been convicted of plotting bomb attacks on Russian cities, marking the end of a four-month closed-door trial that has been shrouded in secrecy.
A court in Stavropol, 1,200 kilometers south of Moscow, handed out prison sentences of nine to 15 years to the five men, all from the predominantly Muslim region of Russia's North Caucasus. The men were found guilty of involvement in illegal armed groups, carrying weapons and preparing acts of terrorism.
Prosecutors said the five men all trained at camps run by Khattab, an Arab militant of Jordanian origin who heads a group of fighters in Chechnya. Khattab, who uses only one name, is thought to have befriended Mr. bin Laden when they were fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan during the 1980s.
According to prosecutors, the five were ordered by Khattab to return home and prepare explosives for a string of terror strikes in Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. They were arrested near Stavropol in early 2000 before they could carry out their plans.
The men had pleaded innocent to all charges except for participation in illegal armed formations, according to Russian press reports. They admitted they had trained in Chechnya, where they had gone to study Islam, but said they had never participated in armed combat.
Investigators say the group's alleged ringleader, Achemez Gochiyaev, is in hiding. They say Mr. Gochiyaev also is the chief suspect in the bombings of two apartment buildings in Moscow in 1999. They also think that one of the five men convicted Wednesday, Taukan Frantsuzov, carried out one of the Moscow blasts, although there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
The explosions, which rocked Russia's capital and two other cities over three weeks in September 1999, killed nearly 300 people and were immediately blamed by the authorities on Islamic insurgents. Then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin responded by reviving Russia's military campaign against Chechnya, which he said had become a haven for international terrorists.
But no evidence has been made public that the blasts were the work of Muslim extremists. Only one of the bombings -- in Buinaksk, a city in the Caspian region of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya -- has ever resulted in a trial: Last March, a court in the Dagestani capital Makhachkala sentenced two men to life in prison for their roles in the blast.
Meanwhile, the trial begins Thursday of Salman Raduyev, a Chechen rebel commander who faces charges of terrorism, hostage-taking and organizing illegal armed formations. The only prominent Chechen warlord ever to be captured by the Russians, Mr. Raduyev is accused of leading an armed raid on the Dagestani town of Kizlyar in 1996 in which 78 people died. His trial is being held under tight security in Dagestan's Supreme Court in Makhachkala.
Russia's prosecutor general, Vladimir Ustinov, who is to present the government's case against Mr. Raduyev, arrived in Makhachkala Wednesday. "All citizens of Russia and the whole world should know that we are fighting terrorism ... not just with the force of arms, but with the force of the law," he said.
Concerns about security were cited for the decision to hold the Stavropol trial at a penal colony outside the city. Armored personnel carriers accompanied the bus taking defendants to the trial. Journalists were only allowed in to court on the last day to hear the verdict.
But human-rights groups say public scrutiny of the trial was deliberately restricted to cover up holes in the prosecution's case. Defense lawyers said statements signed by the accused in pretrial detention had been made under duress.
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