A court in Dubai has turned down bail applications from two men accused of involvement in the murder of a Russian army commander.

Dubai police say Sulim Yamadayev, a Hero of Russia who commanded the elite Vostok battalion in Chechnya, was shot dead in Dubai on March 28, 2009 in a car park near his luxury apartment.

Tajik national Makhsudzhon Ismatov and Iranian Mahdi Lorniya have been accused of planning the murder and assisting the man who pulled the trigger. The suspected killer has not been named.

The suspects, who both maintain their innocence, are being held in Dubai's central jail.

Sulim's brother, Ruslan Yamadayev, a former member of the Russian parliament's lower house, was gunned down in central Moscow in September 2008. He was a prominent opponent of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

The same Dubai court rejected in December a request for Kadyrov to be summoned to give evidence at the trial. The Chechen president, who has been accused of human rights violations, has denied any involvement in the either of the Yamadayev killings.

In April, the Dubai police chief accused Chechen politician Adam Delimkhanov of involvement in Yamadayev's murder.

The Chechen parliament responded by saying the accusation was an "attempt to discredit...the entire state of the Russian Federation," and that the allegations were designed to "destabilize the political structure in Russia's south and the country as a whole."

The next hearing in the case was set to begin on Thursday, but has been postponed until February 1 due to the non-appearance of witnesses for the defense.

DUBAI, January 7 (RIA Novosti)