| The St.Petersburg Times - the English-language
newspaper of St. Petersburg, Russia. #1065, Friday, April 29, 2005 Request to Extradite Chechen Tests Germany The case of a Chechen woman who shot and killed three Russian servicemen and a Chechen policeman during the 1994-96 war appears to be developing into a thorn in the side of Russian-German relations, German magazine Der Spiegel reported Monday. Asya Dombayeva, who has political asylum in Germany, was arrested last Friday after an extradition plea was received in March from Russia. It came 2 1/2 years after President Vladimir Putin asked Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at a meeting in Oslo to look into the legality of her presence in Germany, the report said. However, a Karlsruhe court annulled the arrest although Dombayeva must still report to the police each week, the report said. In a book and an interview on television screened in Germany during the Nord-Ost hostage crisis, Dombayeva had given a detailed account of how she, with her two sons, who fought on the side of the rebels, shot at Russian troops who came after her. The interview outraged Russians, especially because hundreds of their compatriots were being held hostage by armed Chechens in a Moscow theater at the time. Karlsruhe prosecutors had investigated whether Dombayeva should be charged over the killings in Germany, but were satisfied by her explanations that she had acted in self-defense, the report said. Even if a German court recognizes that the extradition warrant is justified, it would still be up to the German government to have the final word on the case. Last Friday, the Karlsruhe court heard that there are numerous reasons for turning down the extradition request, the report said. http://www.sptimes.ru/archive/times/1065/news/n_15578.htm |