The 35-year-old's identity had initially been hidden from Mr Zakayev's legal team
by the Russians, who claimed he was in fear of the former Chechen leader. Blacking
his name out on his statement, the Russians also failed to reveal that he had
been incarcerated when he made the damning allegation.
Edward Fitzgerald QC said: "It is an extraordinary situation ... Just imagine
in England if someone had to make a statement and you put him on television while
in custody. The case would be dismissed as an abuse of process straight away.
This really is the darkest days of Kremlin justice coming back.''
Mr Zakayev - who was once considered a moderate in Moscow - was arrested at Heathrow
airport in December after arriving from Denmark, where the Russians had tried
unsuccessfully to extradite him.
They want to try the former actor and friend of Vanessa Redgrave on allegations
of murder and torture, accusing him of being a terrorist who ordered the deaths
of more than 300 police and civilians.
But the 44-year-old denies the charges, insisting they are a political ploy to
discredit him. His life would be in danger should he be returned, his lawyers
insist.
Yesterday, Mr Dashuev told the court he had not been a bodyguard but was director
of security at the Ministry of Culture during the short-lived Chechen government.
In November, he said, he was stopped at a checkpoint in Grozny and bundled into
the back of a military vehicle by armed and masked men.
He said he was taken to a military base, where he was thrown in to a covered pit.
During the next six days, still bound and blindfolded, he was interrogated about
Mr Zakayev and asked if he was a member of the Djamaat Islamic battalion, which
he denied.
Eventually he signed documents and repeated the allegations for television cameras,
he said. After a further two months in prison he was taken before a court, where
an old school friend who was now in the secret services warned him he was being
released so that he could be killed. Mr Dashuev fled the country and later contacted
Mr Zakayev's lawyers.
Yesterday Khawar Qureshi, for the Russian authorities, asked for an adjournment
before cross-examination because the witness had been produced without warning.