BRITAIN: A British judge delivered a scathing indictment of Russia's criminal justice system yesterday, rejecting an attempt to extradite a Chechen rebel leader and provoking the wrath of the Kremlin.
After months of hearings at London's Bow Street Magistrates' Court, Judge Timothy Workman said he was convinced there was a "substantial risk" that Moscow would torture Mr Akhmed Zakayev if he were sent there for trial. "It would be unjust and oppressive to return Mr Zakayev to stand his trial in Russia," he said.
The Kremlin said Judge Workman's decision amounted to an "attempt to justify terrorism". The Russian foreign ministry added: "This decision deals a serious blow to our partnership, especially in the field of real joint counter-terrorist action," it said in a statement. "British authorities have clearly used double standards. While speaking in favour of uprooting terrorism . . . in reality it gives shelter to terrorists on its territory," it added.
Russia had sought to extradite Mr Zakayev on 13 charges including murder and kidnapping. The charges date from the first of two wars in the breakaway region from 1994-96, but in the years since Mr Zakayev became the chief Chechen peace negotiator, meeting Russian officials in Moscow as recently as 2001. Judge Workman said he believed Moscow sought the extradition to "exclude him from continuing to take part in the peace process and to discredit him as a moderate".
He said he had concluded that fighting in Chechnya was a war, not an "anti-terrorism operation".
Most damagingly of all, the judge said he believed a witness who testified that he had been held in a pit and tortured for six days to provide the Russians with a statement they had used against Mr Zakayev.