Dubai prosecutors have halted their pursuit of State Duma Deputy Adam Delimkhanov, formerly on an international wanted list on suspicion of masterminding the 2009 killing of Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev, a senator said Thursday.
In April 2009, Dubai police issued an arrest warrant for Delimkhanov, a close ally and relative of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, in connection with the killing of Yamadayev, former commander of the Vostok battalion.
A Federation Council senator representing Chechnya, Ziyad Sabsabi, told reporters Thursday that he had received an official response from the Dubai chief prosecutor informing him that Delimkhanov was no longer being pursued after Interpol and Dubai law enforcement reconsidered the case.
Yamadayev, 35, was shot dead outside his luxury home in Dubai in March 2009. A Dubai court in April 2010 convicted Maksudzhon Ismatov, a Tajik, and Iranian national Makhdi Lorniya of carrying out the killing and sentenced them each to 25 years in prison. Both have since been freed.
Delimkhanov, who has denied wrongdoing, was removed from the Interpol wanted list in January.
The Kadyrov and Yamadayev families once commanded pro-Moscow forces in eastern Chechnya, but the two clans had a falling out.
Yamadayev's older brother Ruslan was shot dead in central Moscow in 2008.
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