A participant in the attack on Dagestan has been arrested in Stavropol.

The court arrested Alibi Yaipkaev, a resident of the Stavropol Territory, accused of attacking the Botlikh region of Dagestan in 1999.

As "Caucasian Knot" reported, the court sentenced Stavropol resident Albert Elakayev to nine years in prison, finding him involved in the 1999 attack on Dagestan by Shamil Basayev's group.

The Russian FSB and the Investigative Committee reported the arrest in Neftekumsk of a Stavropol resident who, as part of Shamil Basayev's group, participated in the 1999 attack on the Botlikh District of Dagestan.

"An irrefutable evidence base has been formed proving the participation of Russian citizen Yaipkaev Alibi Kuruptursunovich, born in 1982, in this crime," according to a report from the FSB's Interfax Public Relations Center.

Svetlana Petrenko, the official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, reported that Yaipkaev "committed an attempt on the lives of servicemen of a military maneuver group participating in a counter-terrorism operation."

At the request of the investigation, the court arrested Yaipkaev. He is charged under Part 2 of Article 209, Part 3 of Article 279, and Article 317 of the Russian Criminal Code (banditry, armed rebellion, and attempt on the life of a serviceman), TASS reports.

It should be noted that security forces regularly report the arrests of alleged members of Basayev's gang. Criminal cases involving Basayev and Khattab's gangs are similar and often falsified, lawyer Narine Ayrapetyan told the "Caucasian Knot." "The witnesses are the same everywhere." "Five witnesses are usually called – three secret witnesses and two public ones," she said.

Ayrapetyan emphasized that cases are fabricated against innocent people, too. "When people were not involved, but under threat, including torture, others are forced to testify against them. For example, one of my clients, who is serving a sentence in the Ulyanovsk region, told me that he is being pressured to testify about the events of 1999 against people he didn't even know before," the lawyer said.