Akhmed Chatayev

Akhmed Chatayev (Russian: Ахмед Чатаев; 14 July 1980 – 22 November 2017) was a Chechen Islamist, terrorist, and Islamic State leader who is thought to have been the planner of the 2016 Istanbul airport attack.[1][2][3][4][5] He was killed in a shootout with Georgian security forces in Tbilisi on 22 November 2017.

Akhmed Rajapovich Chatayev
Born	14 July 1980 Vedeno, Vedensky District, Chechnya, Russian SFSR, USSR
Died	22 November 2017(2017-11-22) (aged 37) Tbilisi, Georgia
Known for	Planning the 2016 Atatürk Airport attack

From Chechnya to Syria

Chatayev was born 14 July 1980 in Vedeno village, Vedensky District, Chechnya, in the then Checheno-Ingush ASSR, in Soviet Russia.[6] He participated in the Second Chechen War and lost his arm in the battle.[7] He then fled Russia in 2001 to Austria where he was granted refugee status in 2003. In 2008 he and several other Chechens were detained in the Swedish town of Trelleborg. Police found weapons in his car and he spent more than a year in a local prison. On 3 January 2010, he was detained in Uzhhorod in western Ukraine. According to Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, his mobile phone contained instructions for explosives, as well as photographs of those killed in explosions. He faced extradition to Russia but on 14 January, after strong protests by Amnesty International, which claimed he could face torture if he was returned to Russia, the European Court of Human Rights called upon the Ukrainian authorities not to extradite him.[8][9]

Since the European Court of Human Rights forbade his deportation to Russia, the Ukrainians sent him to Georgia where he was accused of a certain crime committed in the 2000s. For a while he was probably held in a Georgian prison but then was freed, got married and stayed in Georgia. On 19 May 2011, Chatayev was detained at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The Bulgarian court first ruled to extradite him to Russia, but the appellate court reversed the decision.

In August 2012, Chatayev reappeared in Georgia, where he was wounded, losing his foot, and arrested in the Lopota incident, a skirmish between the Georgian police and Caucasian militants, near the Dagestan section of the border with Russia. He was soon released from jail on bail. In January 2013, Georgian prosecutors dropped the case against him on account of absence of evidence. Soon he left Georgia with the declared intention to travel to Austria for rehabilitation.[10]

Syria

He traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State in February 2015.

UN sanctions

In October 2015, Chatayev was designated as a foreign terrorist by the United Nations Security Council and the U.S. Department of the Treasury and thus subject to sanctions.[11] According to the UN, "In September 2007, Chataev organized a delivery to the Chechen Republic, Russian Federation, consisting of US$12,000, military uniforms, a personal computer and audio equipment for the terrorists operating in the Northern Caucasus." Further, it is alleged, "He directly commands 130 militants and calls on Muslims to join the armed fight against the official authorities in Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, and other countries with the aim of establishing a caliphate. Chataev is responsible for training and redeploying Russian-speaking ISIL militants from the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq to the Russian Federation with a view to setting up ISIL cells and conducting terrorist acts. He is the organizer and mastermind of planned ISIL terrorist acts against Russian diplomatic missions abroad."[12]

Death

In November 2017, the Georgian State Security Service said Chatayev was likely to have been killed in a 20-hour counter-terrorism operation in Tbilisi on 22 November which killed one Georgian special forces serviceman and three members of an armed terrorist group. Four police officers were wounded and one member of the group was arrested.[13] The security officials later confirmed that Chatayev was killed in the shootout when he blew himself up and the body was identified by DNA and fingerprint analysis.[14]

References

1. Faith Karimi (1 July 2016). "Istanbul airport terror attack: Two bombers identified, state news agency says". CNN. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
2. "Istanbul airport attack: One-armed Akhmed Chataev reportedly behind Ataturk massacre". Ibtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
3. William M. Arkin. "Chechen Akhmed Chatayev Is Called Suspected Planner of Istanbul Attack". NBC News. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
4. Charles Miranda. "Istanbul terror attack: one-armed Chechen Akhmed Chatayev a suspect". News.com.au. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
5. "Turkish government does not confirm Akhmed Chatayev's participation in Ataturk Airport attack". InterpressNews. 11 March 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
6. https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20151005.aspx
7. "The one-armed Recruiter Brief biography of Ahmed Chatayev". Meduza. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
8. "Chechen Risks Torture if Returned to Russia". Amnesty International. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
9. "The short history of "Russian" terrorist Ahmet Chatayev". Reddit. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
10. "Security Service Chief Unveils New Details on Chatayev's Case". Civil Georgia. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
11. "Treasury Sanctions Individuals Affiliated With Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and Caucasus Emirate". U.S. Dept. of the Treasury. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
12. https://www.un.org/sc/suborg/en/sanctions/1267/aq_sanctions_list/summaries/individual/akhmed-rajapovich-chataev
13. "Suspected Istanbul airport bomber thought killed in Georgia: three sources". Reuters. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
14. "Chatayev among Killed Suspects, Security Service Confirms". Civil Georgia. 1 December 2017. Archived from the original on 18 December 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.