Cellphone Tracking Lead to Chechen Rebel's Death

The Chechen warlord, Shamil Basayev has claimed that Russian security forces were able to kill the rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov by tracing his location from his cellphone calls, according to a report on the Chechen separatist web site.

Maskhadov made regular phone calls each day following negotiations with the Russians last year, to overseas representatives and other rebel leaders in the Chechen state.

"Aslan did not need arms. Concealment was the best way to stay alive and he broke it by excessive use of a mobile," the Basayev said.

"Thus, there were no traitors in Maskhadov's inner circle, and the $10 million reward will go to the head of Russia's Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, who will get about $5 million, and the people who work at the local FSB branch," Kavkazcenter quoted Basayev.

Russia's security service however, says it paid the bounty for information that led to the killing of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. The service "was approached by certain citizens who gave the necessary information" on his whereabouts, the agency said in a statement.

However, the BBC's Russian affairs analyst Steven Eke cautioned that the details surrounding the payment of the reward were suspicious - that the sum of money said to have been paid was unprecedented, and the official explanation of the events leading to Maskhadov's death was not clear."

Posted to the site on 21st March 2005