YESSENTUKI. April 21 (Interfax-AVN) - A militant suspected of involvement in a series of terrorist acts, including an attack on a helicopter carrying State Duma deputies and high-ranking armed forces officials, has been captured in Ingushetia.
The arrested militant is a member of an armed group led by Muslim Khashiyev, a relative of Magomed Khashiyev, one of the organizers of the Beslan school siege in 2004, Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel told Interfax on Friday.
"The assailants fired automatic weapons at an Mi-8MT military helicopter belonging to the North Caucasus branch of the Federal Border Guard Service of Russia to the southeast of the village of Nesterovskaya in Ingushetia on May 31, 2001," Shepel said.
"The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Konstantinov, died in the attack. State Duma Deputies Arbatov and Zelyonov and the Federal Border Guard Service's officer Popov were wounded," he said.
The helicopter caught fire and was forced to make an emergency landing in the North Caucasus, the official said.
The militant was captured in an operation carried out as part of the Prosecutor General Office's investigation into the activities of a North Caucasus-based international terrorist group, Shepel said.
He was charged with participation in illegal armed groups, banditry, a coup attempt and the illegal trade in weapons and explosives, he said.
"Mutaliyev admitted to a role in Muslim Khashiyev gang's attack on the Mi-8MT helicopter outside the village of Nesterovskaya in May 2001," Shepel said.