ROSTOV-ON-DON. May 13 (Interfax) - Law enforcement officers have taken unprecedented security measures at the trial of terrorist Ali Taziyev, aka Magas, that is taking place at the North Caucasian Military District Court, an Interfax correspondent reported.
There are eight special vehicles of the Rostov region main department of the Russian Interior Ministry outside of the court. Both special police forces and bailiff units were reinforced.
Taziyev will be charged on seven counts, including the creation of an illegal armed group, armed rebellion, trafficking in arms and ammunition, illegal production of arms by an organized group, attempt at the life of an official and attempt at the life of a police officer.
It is expected that over 900 complainants and around 200 witnesses will be questiond during the trial.
According to police, Taziyev, who gained notoriety as Magas, is one of the closest assistants of Chechen terrorists leader Doku Umarov.
Investigators believe that Taziyev joined an armed group created by a Jordanian national in Grozny in 1999.
In October 2007, Umarov created the Caucasian Emirate, an illegal armed group, the strategic goal of which was to separate the North Caucasus from Russia and to create an independent Sharia state in the region which implies overthrowing the constitutional regime. He appointed Taziyev as the so-called military emir of the Caucasian Emirate armed forces. Taziyev was in charge of developing, planning and controlling the execution of terrorist attacks, as well as financing them.
Taziyev created a number of criminal groups that committed a number of terrorist attacks that sparked a public outcry. The list include the explosion of a bus in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol territory, in December 2007 that killed three people and wounded 17, and the explosion of a police station in Ingushetia's Nazran district in August 2009 in which 21 people were killed and 289 were wounded. Taziyev was also involved in an attack at the life of Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on June 22, 2009. The Ingush president and his bodyguard were wounded and two more bodyguards were killed in the attack.
Police think that Taziyev was involved in terrorist activity until June 2010 when he was detained in Mozdok district, North Ossetia.