A court in Dubai rejected on Thursday a request of lawyers acting on behalf of suspects in the Yamadayev murder trial that the Chechen president be summoned for testimony.
Sulim Yamadayev, a former commander of a famed Chechen battalion, was killed with three bullets from a gold-plated gun to his chest in Dubai in March.
Police officers, who arrested two suspects in the case, said on Thursday the gun had been handed over to them by a Chechen delegation led by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, which visited the Arab Emirates in 2008.
The defense team requested Kadyrov and the delegates be summoned to the trial. The request was denied, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom.
Yamadayev was killed in the car park beneath his luxury residence in Dubai. His brother had been gunned down in Moscow several months earlier. The Yamadayev clan was in opposition to Kadyrov.
Two suspects are currently on trial in the murder case - Tajik national Makhsudzhon Ismatov and Iranian Mahdi Lorniya.
The suspects were charged with conspiracy to kill Yamadayev and aiding in the murder. Investigators said they had shadowed Yamadayev, had been involved in planning the crime and were in possession of the suspected murder weapon.
The name of a man who pulled the trigger has not been disclosed. He is believed to have fled the Emirates.
Dubai police have accused Adam Delimkhanov, Kadyrov's close friend and a lawmaker in Russia's lower house of parliament, of ordering the assassination. Both have strongly denied any link to the murder.
Both Kadyrov and Yamadayev were former militants who joined Russia's federal troops. Chechnya saw two separatist wars in the late 1990s-early 2000s.
DUBAI, December 17 (RIA Novosti)
