Family of Chechen rebel leader murdered in Dubai 'forgives' killers

Mon, 27 Dec 2010

Dubai - The family of Chechen rebel commander Sulim Yamadayev have been reconciled with his killers in Dubai, the newspaper Gulf News reported on Monday.

"We came to an agreement with them and have forgiven them; that is what we do in Chechnya. Everyone has to be forgiven," said Muslim Aliyev, Yamadayev's cousin.

Aliyev did not say which party the family had reached an agreement with the killers.

Yamadayev was shot in the back of the head in March 2009 in a parking lot in Dubai, where he was living at the time. Two people were sentenced to life in prison in connection with the crime.

Last week, a Dubai appeals Court reduced the men's sentences to three years after the Yamadayev family relinquished their civil and criminal rights against the defendants.

Aliyev said the men sentenced in Dubai had "only helped with logistics." Those who committed the murder fled to Chechnya, and have been forgiven as well, Aliyev added.

Yamadayev was a powerful rebel leader at odds with Russian-backed Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov. Two of his brothers were also killed, one in by gunfire and the other by a bomb attack.

Aliyev said the family currently maintains "cordial relations" with Kadyrov.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359830,murdered-dubai-forgives-killers.html.