Chechen Attack Suspect Detained with Syrians in Greece
A Chechen suspected of involvement in a deadly attack on a Russian police convoy in 2009 has been detained with a group of Syrian migrants off Greece, police said Tuesday.
The 34-year-old man, picked up by coastguards in the Aegean Sea early Sunday, faces an international arrest warrant for "participation in an illegal action and the murder of five police officers in Russia," according to a statement.
The man, who will be extradited to Russia, was allegedly a key member of the group behind the attack between January and September 2009, the statement said. It did not give the location or date of the gun and grenade assault on a police convoy.
Coastguards detained the Chechen along with 46 mainly Syrian migrants off the coast of the island of Chios, the statement said. The man had been living in nearby Turkey since 2012, it added.
The Chechen separatist movement became increasingly radical following a failed uprising against the Russian government in 1994-96, evolving into a violent Islamist insurgency in the 2000s.
The detention took place the same day five police were killed and 12 injured when they allegedly foiled an attempt by a suicide bomber to attack a concert hall in the Chechen capital Grozny.
Sunday's blast fueled worries over the impact of the return home of fighters who have flooded to Syria and Iraq to battle alongside radical groups such as Islamic State (IS).
Source: Agence France Presse
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