MOSCOW. May 8 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office will work on the extradition of former president of Ichkeria Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev from Qatar.
"If we do not receive an official answer to our request for the arrest and extradition of Yandarbiyev in the near future, we will send a third request to Qatar," Robert Adelkhanyan, head of the international legal department of the Prosecutor General's Office, told Interfax on Thursday.
He said the first request to extradite the former Chechen leader was sent to Qatar in November 2002 and the second request was sent in February 2003.
"We have not received an official reply from the Qatari authorities. Meanwhile, according to the Interpol information, Yandarbiyev and his family have been living in the Qatari capital, Doha, for several years. There is information that he is seeking refugee status," Adelkhanyan said.
The Prosecutor General's Office has charged Yandarbiyev with armed revolt, the organization of illegal armed units, and attacks on police officer, all in all three articles of the Russian Criminal Code.
The North Caucasus department of the Prosecutor General's Office issued a warrant for the prosecution of Yandarbiyev and announced him wanted in September 2001.
The same warrant put four former leaders of the Chechen separatists on the wanted list: Aslan Maskhadov, Akhmed Zakayev (currently in London under the police surveillance), former interior minister Kazbek Makhashev and former minister of the Maskhadov government Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev.