13:29, 28 August 2003

Suspects of assassination of Minister Gusayev has been established

The police suspects specific people of committing the life attempt on Dagestani Minister for Ethnic Policy, Information and External Relations Magomedsalikh Gusayev, acting top prosecutor of Dagestan Magomed Abdulkhalikov said at a news conference.

Criminal proceedings have been launched on three corpora delicti - statesman assassination, murder under aggravated conditions, and storage, transportation and use of explosive substances and devices, said the prosecutor.

Abdulkhalikov also informed that a suspended case, an attempt on Gusayev's life of June 8, 2001, when a grenade blast had left the minister with several wounds on his home threshold, had been resumed.

Both crimes were two links of one chain. "That's Wahhabi extremists. I am a man of principle, and they don't like it," Mr. Abdulkhalikov quoted from the words of the deceased minister to the June crime investigators.

Magomedsalikh Gusayev died in a car blast yesterday. Two men rushed up to his car as it had reduced speed at a sharp turn to attach an explosive device to its roof. The device went off within seconds.

Source: RIA Novosti