Dagestan: details of Wahhabi ideologist Adallo's surrender

Yesterday, on July 5, a Wahhabi ideologist from Dagestan, Avar poet Adallo (Abdula Aliev), 72, arrived in Makhachkala, Dagestan, with the intention of voluntary surrender to law enforcement agencies. Abdula Aliev had wanted to come back to Dagestan "cap in hand" for about a year. With that request, he had made repeated addresses in his letters to the president of the country and the chairperson of Dagestan's State Council. Opinions had been divided in Dagestan as to that: some had insisted on his return, while others had thought there was no need at all for the return of the traitor.

A native of Urada, Shamilskii district, Dagestan, Abdula Aliev was a well-known Dagestani poet in the Soviet period. His songs made up most of the Dagestan Radio's record library. In 1999, he became one of the ideological leaders of Chechen separatists. It was him who helped Shamil Basaev organize the raid on Dagestan's Tsumada and Botlikh districts and Karamakhi. He is known to have long been close friends with Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, Movladi Udugov, Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basaev, the well-known Chechen rebel leaders. Adallo have lived in Turkey since 1999 and has been on Interpol's wanted list since then. Seventy-two-year-old Abdula Aliev explains his arrival in Dagestan with a desire to apologize to residents of the republic for his assistance to Chechen gunmen.

The prosecutor's office of Dagestan has charged Aliev under Article 279 "Armed Revolt" of the Russian Crime Code, of which he partially pleads guilty. He is currently at his son's flat in Makhachkala, having given a written undertaking not to leave the city. Abdula Aliev's case will be heard by the Supreme Court of Dagestan.