In Turkey, police releases Uvais Akhmadov

The Istanbul police has released the former Chechen field commander Uvais Akhmadov on the fifth day after his arrest, having found no sufficient proofs of his involvement in the attempt on Shamsuddin Batukaev, the former head of the Sharia Court a self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

In Istanbul, Uvais Akhmadov was detained together with Barkham Batumaev, 26, a native of Chechnya. According to the Turkish police, Batumaev tried to kill Shamsuddin Batukaev, the former head of the Supreme Sharia Court of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. After detention, Batumaev said that Uvais Akhmadov was the customer of the murder.

The check conducted by the Turkish police did not confirm Barkham Batumaev's evidences. According to Akhmadov, he has nothing to do with criminal histories; he said that he was "blatantly slandered."

"I was told at the police station that they checked me in the context of the provocations against Chechens, which recently occur in Turkey," the "Kommersant" quotes Uvais Akhmadov as saying.

During the interrogation, Barkham Batumaev claimed that he was under strong influence of Uvais Akhmadov. According to his story, the weapon was handed over to him "by a man with a Muslim name, who drove up in a white Mercedes car," the "Newsru.com" writes.

In late 1990s, the Akhmadov brothers (Uvais, Ruslan, Rizvan, Apti, Abu, Ramzan, Imran, Tagir and Zelimkhan) controlled their home city of Urus-Martan. Law enforcement bodies had asserted that all the nine brothers took an active part in combat operations against federal forces in Chechnya. In August 2001, Musa Akhmadov, the younger son of Uvais Akhmadov, was arrested. His elder brother Adam Akhmadov, 30, was killed in late August 2001.