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Security chief of late Chechen separatist leader surrenders

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Amirkhan Yandarbiyev, the security chief of late Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, and his two bodyguards surrendered to local authorities Friday.
GUDERMES, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - Amirkhan Yandarbiyev, the security chief of late Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, and his two bodyguards surrendered to local authorities Friday.

All the three are nephews of Yandarbiyev, former vice president of Ichkeria - the name separatists use for "independent" Chechnya.

On surrendering, the Chechens said they wanted to return to peaceful life and work in their republic, which was devastated by two military campaigns in the 1990s. The former separatists had lived outside Russia until now.

Yandarbiyev died in a car bombing in Qatar in February 2004. Two Russian agents were later convicted of his killing in a local court but released to Russia five months later. Once at home, they were reportedly decorated, but there have been no official announcements on what happened to them upon their return.

Charges were brought against Yandarbiyev as well as two other separatist leaders - late Shamil Basayev, and Akhmed Zakayev who is currently residing in London - for masterminding the siege of a Moscow theater in October 2002. About 1,000 people were then taken hostage and more than 100 died during the operation to release them, according to official statistics.

Yandarbiyev was also wanted in Russia for organizing "an armed militant invasion" of Russia's southern republic of Daghestan in 1999, which led to the second federal campaign against separatists.

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