2 kidnappers go on trial

May 05, 2003

ROSTOV-ON-DON - Two men on trial for kidnapping an American aid  worker three years ago denied involvement Monday and said authorities  used torture to extract confessions from them.

Magomed Gakayev and Ayub Katayev are charged with kidnapping, terrorism and participation in illegal armed groups in connection with the 2001 abduction of Kenneth Gluck, then head of the North  Caucasus mission of the Dutch branch of Medecins sans Frontieres. If  convicted, the two face up to 25 years in prison. Gluck, of New York  City, was held for 25 days before being suddenly released. His captors never made any demands.

Russia's Federal Security Service said its agents freed Gluck in a  special operation. But Chechen leaders and some Russian news media  claimed Gluck had been abducted by forces linked to the security  service in an attempt to punish the aid worker for his public criticism of the military campaign in Chechnya, intimidate
humanitarian groups trying to work independently there, or demonstrate to European observers that the war was justified. Following his release, Gluck said he did not know who his captors were and refused to speculate.

Medecins sans Frontieres, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, said Monday it had no comment on the case. Spokesman Mark Walsh said Gluck, now director of operations for MSF Holland, had not received a subpoena from Russian authorities and would not attend the trial.

Walsh said Gluck is currently in Iraq to coordinate MSF's aid work.

At the trial's opening day Monday, Judge Yuri Minko of the Rostov Regional Court said Gluck was not officially considered a victim because he refused to sign a Russian transcript of his testimony to investigators. Since he is not a victim, the court cannot require him to attend.

Minko told The Associated Press it was no use calling Gluck as a witness "because, as we know from his initial testimony, he said he saw people in camouflage and masks."

"He won't be able to tell us anything new," the judge said.

MSF spokeswoman Marieke van Zalk said Gluck did not sign his testimony because he had no access to a lawyer at the time and was still in shock from his captivity.

Prosecutor Vyacheslav Dmitriyenko told the court that Gakayev and Katayev were among 10 Chechen rebels ordered to kidnap Gluck and neither knew why they had been ordered to do so. Authorities say the mastermind was Abubakar Dzhumayev, a rebel commander reportedly killed last year.

Both Gakayev and Katayev said their confessions during the investigation were made under torture, including electric shocks, at Khankala, Russia's main military base in Chechnya.

"I could have confessed to killing John F. Kennedy after the torture I was put under during the investigation at Khankala," Gakayev told the court.

After the defendants' testimony, Minko recessed the trial until Wednesday, when 20 witnesses from Chechnya - including relatives and neighbors of Gakayev and Katayev - are to testify.

Gluck's kidnapping prompted many aid agencies to suspend work in Chechnya. MSF later returned to Chechnya, but suspended work there again in July after the kidnapping of Russian aid worker Nina Davidovich, who was released in January.

In August, Arjan Erkel, a Dutch citizen working for MSF, was kidnapped in Dagestan, a Russian region bordering Chechnya. Erkel has not been released, and MSF has accused authorities of dragging their feet in the investigation of that case.

/The Associated Press/