Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev - Possible Death in The Mountains of Dagestan

Possible Death in The Mountains of Dagestan

Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev stayed in Azerbaijan for an extended period of time. It is from there that he edited the internet site named after him, Noukhaev.com. Since Spring 2004 no new information has come through from him. According to some sources, Nukhaev secretly arrived in Chechnya in late 2003. He supposedly convinced Ruslan Gelayev to cross Dagestan to Georgia and was with a group of Gelayev's fighters when they were surrounded in the mountains during the winter of 2004. Some of Gelayev's men were killed, some taken captive and on February 28 Gelayev himself was allegedly killed. Several sources consider that Nukhaev was killed alongside the fighters, although another version maintains that he was released. In support of the first version is the circumstantial evidence that neither Ichkeria or Mekh-Kell newspapers are being issued. There are no new book-brochures by Nukhaev about Russian-Chechen and international relations, or promoting his opinion on the future of Chechnya. These book-brochures were brought from Azerbaijan and can sometimes still be found in the markets of Grozny and Nazran.