16 March 2004, 16:03
Ruslan Gelayev's relatives cannot take his body for burial
The body of Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev, a notorious Chechen commander, has not been given to his relatives so far. The agreement that the relatives were allowed to take his body was reached a week ago, one of them said in his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent. But the relatives have not been able to take the dead body from the morgue of the Rostov Hospital. "We left for Rostov on March 10 to take the body of Khamzat for burial. We informed relatives and acquaintances that we were allowed to take him and the funeral would be conducted the next day at the cemetery of the village of Gikalo, Chechnya's Grozny district. However we were unexpectedly refused at the morgue in Rostov at the very last moment. Nobody explained the reasons, they only told us somebody had called up from somewhere and had forbidden to give us the body of Gelayev," said the interlocutor.
At the same time, the memorial ceremony (tezet) for Ruslan Gelayev is continuing in the village of Gikalo. His mother and sister arrived from Georgia several days ago. Relatives of the killed field commander do not know when they will be able to take the body of Ruslan Gelayev and bury him and whether they will be able to take the body or not at all.
Editors note: See also the article "FSB confirms Gelayev's death".
Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent Source: Caucasian Knot
