Sputnik
The Russian Public Prosecution Office approved the indictment in the new criminal case regarding the 1999 attack of Shamil Basayev and Khattab’s gang fighters against the Russian Republic of Dagestan in 1999.
An official document published by the Public Prosecution stated: “The indictment has been approved in the criminal case against the residents of the Neftekomsk region of the Russian Stavropol Region. They are facing charges of“ membership in a gang ”,“ participation in armed rebellion ”and“ assaulting the military.
The investigation finds that the defendants, whose number is not mentioned, participated in August 1999 in the ranks of one of Basayev and Khattab’s gangs in carrying out the armed attack on the Russian military, which led to the killing of 33 people and the injury of 34 others.
The investigation committee had previously announced that between 1999 and 2020 more than 80 persons involved in the attack on Dagestan had been convicted, while criminal cases against a number of them (including Basayev himself) were closed due to their death. The others are still on the wanted list.
The Chechen fighters’ attack on Dagestan occurred at the beginning of August 1999. Various estimates indicate that between 400 and 1500 people participated in this attack. The fighters entered the Dagestan region of Butlich, where they seized a number of residential compounds. And before the end of August, the military, internal forces, and volunteers were able to remove them from these residential compounds and force them to return to Chechnya.
But the fighters entered Dagestan again in September, capturing a number of important villages and highlands in the Novolaksk region. They were removed from this area as a result of another major military operation. These terrorist attacks later became the cause of the Second Chechen War.
And the losses of the federal forces in August and September 1999, about 300 dead and 800 wounded. And the Russian Ministry of Defense reported at the time that the fighters’ death toll was about 2.5 thousand dead and wounded.
Source: Novosti
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