Russia Protests Release of Chechen Prisoners in Georgia

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed protest against the release of ethnic Chechen prisoners in Tbilisi, who were arrested by the Georgian border guards for suspected illegal crossing the border and possession of arms in August, 2002.
 
?The Russian side has numerously requested Tbilisi to extradite the members of a criminal group, who were detained for illegal crossing the Russian-Georgian border in August 2002. As a result of our attempts, five members of the group were extradited to Russia. However, the others remained in Tbilisi,? an information note issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry on January 6 reads.
 
?As far as we know, Russian law-enforcement agencies have serious questions to the members of this criminal group, who reportedly will be set free in the near future. In this context, we should also stress, that a number of persons, who have committed various crimes on the territory of Russia, are hiding in Georgia,? the Russian Foreign Ministry states.
 
Aslan Khanchukaev, who was among those 13 Chechens arrested in 2002, was released on January 5, after serving his sentence in a Tbilisi prison.
 
In July, 2003 the Tbilisi District Court acquitted four of these accused men, including Khanchukaev, but they remained imprisoned after being accused of organizing disorder in the jail on October 4, 2002. Three other Chechens will be released in the following days, according to the Georgian media.
 
Last February the court also acquitted two others ? Bekkhan Mulkoev and Husein Alkhanov, who were also part of the group of 13 Chechens detained by the Georgian border guards in 2002.
 
However, shortly after their release both of them mysteriously disappeared and on February 19 the Russian Federal Security Service reported that Russian law enforcers detained two Chechens ? Mulkoev and Alkhanov – at the Georgian-Russian border. The news triggered protests among the Chechen community in Georgia, which accused the Georgian authorities of kidnapping two Chechens and secretly extraditing them to Russia.