Human rights defenders have reported that a former Chechen resistance fighter was arrested in Sweden and is being prepared for extradition to Russia.

According to the information, on January 24, 2012, at 7:00am local time, the Swedish special police for migration arrested Emilkhan Sadaev (aka Ruslan Atkaev) in the city of Flen. He was confined to a deportation center and is allegedly being prepared for extradition.

Sadaev participated in the Chechen national liberation struggle against Russian occupation forces in the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1999-2004. He used to be one of Aslan Maskhadov’s closest aides; he was in charge of supplying the Chechen resistance forces with all necessities. However, in 2004, he was injured and left his homeland. First, he arrived in Azerbaijan and began a new life in Baku. He changed his name and started to use Ruslan Atkaev, because he feared for his life. Due to persistent pressure from Russian and Azerbaijani special services, he was forced to leave and moved to Turkey. But, as it is well known, Turkey is a place where Russian special service agents feel free to assassinate Chechen asylum seekers. Thus, after a while he left there too, and this time he managed to reach Sweden, hoping that in this democratic, law-obedient country he would finally find asylum. After applying for asylum, he also applied to the European Court of Human Rights and his application was accepted and given file number 73047/11. Surprisingly he was arrested by Swedish police after waiting more than two years for a decision regarding his status in Sweden. We must point out that his two brothers, Musa and Zelimkhan, were killed by Russian forces and his house in the village of Stariye-Atagi in Chechnya was blown up by Russian soldiers.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco