Versions of Zelimkhan Kadyrov's death differ

Zelimkhan Kadyrov, the elder son of Akhmad Kadyrov, the president of the Chechen republic who was killed in a terrorist act in Grozny on May 9, died in the village of Tsentoroy on May 31. According to official information, Zelimkhan Kadyrov died from a heart attack. As a source in the Chechen government told the Caucasian Knot correspondent, Zelimkhan went in the yard of his house in the village of Tsentoroy, Chechnya's Kurchaloy district, at about 6 p.m. and suddenly fell. Doctors who came to see him verified death from a heart attack. According to another version, Kadyrov went to bed after dinner and did not wake up. Many people in the republic believe that Zelimkhan Kadyrov, who had serious health problems, died because of the experience related to the tragic death of his father.

On October 17, 2003, Zelimkhan Kadyrov survived a severe car accident. He received bad internal injuries. Kadyrov has regularly suffered heart failure since that time.

Unlike Ramzan, the younger son of the late head of the republic, Zelimkhan Kadyrov did not play any active part in Chechen politics and did not participate in special operations conducted by Akhmat Kadyrov's security service against separatists. He was a first sergeant in the Chechen interior ministry, thought he seldom went to work. At the same time, Zelimkhan Kadyrov, like his younger brother, was not well-liked in the republic. In 1997, Zelimkhan Kadyrov shot a 23-year-old young man dead in a quarrel in Grozny. Relatives of the killed man declared a vendetta against the Kadyrov family.

Akhmat Hajji Kadyrov, who was mufti of Ichkeria at that time, asked known Chechen commanders, including Shamil Basayev, Ruslan Gelayev, and President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov, and they visited relatives of the killed man to ask for forgiveness. The relatives of Zelimkhan's victim stated that Akhmat Kadyrov and his younger son could not fear of their persecution, but flatly refused to forgive the murderer.

Zelimkhan Kadyrov had a wife and four under age children.

Editors note: See also the article "Son of late Chechen president Kadyrov dies".