Chechen Leader's Envoy Arrested in Denmark

An envoy for the Chechen separatist leader was today arrested at Russia's request in Copenhagen.

Danish police said in a statement that Akhmed Zakayev, 43, is suspected of taking part in the planning of the Moscow hostage siege and other "terror attacks".

The arrest was made after Russia requested his extradition through Interpol.

Wearing a grey suit, Mr Zakayev, the official foreign emissary for the Chechen separatist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, appeared this morning at a two-hour detention hearing closed to the public upon a request from the prosecutor.

Judge Lisbeth Christensen ordered him jailed until November 12 pending an investigation. His defence lawyer, Ervin Birk Nielsen, said they had not yet decided whether to appeal.

Police temporarily closed the street in front of the building and stepped up patrols outside the Russian embassy and other Russian organisations in Copenhagen.

A Copenhagen-based Chechen seperatist representative said Mr Zakayev voluntarily cooperated with Danish police when they arrived at his hotel. He was in the city for a Chechen congress.

"The Danish intelligence service asked him some questions and said they could go to the police station. So he walked with them," Osman Ferzaouli said. "He is not related to the criminals, to the terrorists."

Russia condemned Denmark for hosting the two-day event, attended by some 100 Chechen separatist envoys, Russian human rights activists and politicians from Russia and other European countries.

Moscow had asked Copenhagen to cancel the event after Chechen gunmen stormed a Moscow theatre last week and held hundreds of people hostage for 58 hours.

At least 118 hostages and 50 hostage-takers died in the siege and subsequent rescue effort.

The Russian foreign ministry said the conference was "organised and financed by Chechen terrorists, their accomplices and their patrons from al-Qaida".

Denmark refused to cancel it, demanding that Moscow provide proof of terrorist involvement and citing a constitutional right to freedom of press and assembly.

Organisers said the conference sought a peaceful solution to the ongoing war in the breakaway Russian republic.