BRIEFS

–ABU HAFS PUT ON INTERNATIONAL WANTED LIST

The Chechen prosecutor’s office put the alleged al-Qaeda envoy in the North Caucasus, Abu Hafs, on the international wanted list, Itar-Tass reported on August 2. “The involvement of Jordanian citizen Abu Hafs in crimes committed on the territory of the Chechen Republic has been established, and he has been put on the international wanted list,” the news agency quoted a spokesman for the Chechen prosecutor’s office as saying. Itar-Tass reported that according to Russian intelligence, Abu Hafs took over the leadership of the “terrorist network” in the North Caucasus after the deaths of Khattab and Abu Walid.

–NEW ULMAN TRIAL SET TO TAKE PLACE

Case materials in the trial of Russian Army Captain Eduard Ulman, accused of killing six Chechen civilians in Chechnya in January 2002, have been returned to a regional military court for retrial, RIA Novosti reported on August 2. Russia’s Supreme Court upheld an appeal filed by the prosecutors of the case and backed by lawyers acting for the victims and ruled on June 7 that a professional non-jury court should hear the case. Ulman and three co-defendants were acquitted twice on charges of murder and abuse of office by the North Caucasus District Military Court, but the Russian Supreme Court’s military court overturned the rulings. On April 6, the Constitutional Court ruled that serious crimes committed in war-torn Chechnya could be tried without a jury.