Basayev hided in Kabardino-Balkaria for two months

In the course of the trial in North Osetia against three residents of Chechnya and one resident of Kabardino-Balkaria, charged with terrorism, banditry, preparation of a rebellion and other grave crimes, it has become known that Shamil Basayev, the leader of Chechen illegal armed units, lived in the town of Baksan, Kabardino-Balkaria, from June till August 2003. Kanshobi Gazhonov, a lawyer of one of the defendants, Arkady Arakhov from Kabardino-Balkaria, told it to the local newspaper Gazeta Yuga.

According to information obtained by investigative agencies, officers of the road and sentry service had helped Basayev make his way to the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against these officers.

Shamil Basayev and several other rebels lived in the house that Arkady Arakhov had specially bought for this purpose. In August 2003, a skirmish between the rebels and policemen from Baksan, who came to check the house, took place in it. One policeman was badly wounded, and one rebel blew himself up with a grenade. The others managed to escape.

This incident was widely covered by the media, but at that time it was only a suggestion that Shamil Basayev was among the rebels. Now there is a confirmation of this fact.

The investigative agencies have also established that Zarema Muzhukhoyeva and the Shakhid girls who blew themselves up in Tushino visited Nalchik many times. They had companions-in-arms there. One of them, Zaurkan Shogenov, was killed in a skirmish with policemen later.