REVIEW TOPICS:
Head of National Security Committee replaced in Kazakhstan
Russian Federal Security Service: mastermind of terrorist bombings in Moscow portrayed himself madman
There was no explosive device in St.Petersburg-Sevastopol passenger train – Security Service of Ukraine
Security Service of Ukraine putting anti-Semites under constant pressure
Leading Bulgarian journalists exposed as Communist State Security collaborators
Failed papal assassin to be called in for questioning to Poland?
Head of National Security Committee replaced in Kazakhstan
The Senate of Kazakhstan approved Adil Shayakhmetov as the new head of the country's National Security Committee (KNB), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Kazakh Service reports. Adil Shayakhmetov, 54, previously was the First Vice Chairman of KNB of Kazakhstan.
His former boss, Amangeldy Shabdarbayev, 59, has been moved to the post of adviser to Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev Nazarbayev, 69. Reuters marks that Shabdarbayev was removed from the post after KNB clashed publicly with other law enforcement bodies.
President Nazarbaev did not arrive to the parliament building to introduce the new head of the
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Adil Shayakhmetov |
Kazakhstan’s secret service to the hastily collected members of plenary session of the Senate. The new KNB head was presented by the head of the presidential administration Aslan Musin. However, when in April the President dismissed the heads of the Interior Ministry and Prosecutor General's Office, he personally explained to the senators the motivation of this decision, even if outright scandals involving Baurzhan Mukhamedzhanov and Rashid Tusupbekov were not observed, news portal Respublika.Kz points out.
“I will justify your confidence, in our committee there are highly qualified people, and with their help and with your help, I promise to fulfill all commitments before the society,” the news portal cites Shayakhmetov.
It has been known very little about the new KNB boss. Shayakhmetov is a native of Almaty region, he served as a senator for several years and is a professional security service officer. He graduated from the USSR KGB Institute in Minsk in 1982. The new Kazakhstan's security service’s chief pledges that the National Security Committee will be openly cooperating with the press, Interfax reported.
Shayakhmetov told journalists in Astana that his predecessor, Amangeldy Shabdarbayev, should be praised for his "professionalism and contribution to the improvement of the KNB's work." He added that Shabdarbayev's sacking on December 7 had nothing to do with recent scandals involving the KNB, Kazakhstan Today agency reports.
Addressing the members of parliament, Shayakhmetov spoke about his vision of country’s national security. He believes that counterintelligence should be the priority for the KNB. In addition, the security service should continue to fight against extremism and terrorism, as well as strengthen efforts to combat drug trafficking together with other law enforcement agencies.
He stressed that "in the current year there has been much to do for our counterintelligence”. “There were moments when ambassadors of the leading world nations came to the leadership of our country and recognize their mistakes,” stressed the new KNB head.
Five people were detained today outside President Nursultan Nazarbaev's home in the capital, Astana, while protesting the sacking of Amangeldy Shabdarbayev, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. The protesters held signs in support of former KNB chief and calling on Nazarbaev to fight corruption. Police arrived at the protest about 10 minutes after it began and detained the demonstrators, radio says.
Amangeldy Shabdarbayev is a longtime government official who is known for his loyalty to President Nazarbaev.
Shabdarbayev was born on August 1, 1950 in Kaskelen district of Almaty region, by coincidence,
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| Amangeldy Shabdarbayev |
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in the same area where Nursultan Nazarbaev was born. He graduated from the Kazakhstan Institute of Physical Culture, then from the Higher Courses of the KGB in Moscow. Since 1974, he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR, then in 1976 joined the State Security Committee of the Kazakh SSR. Shabdarbayev served as a personal bodyguard to the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Dinmukhamed Kunayev, who was removed in December 1986.
After that Shabdarbayev resigned from the state security. But soon Nazarbaev came to power in Kazakhstan, and Shabdarbayev again became one of the key figures, close to the President of Kazakhstan. In 1992, he was standing at the origins of the Protection Services of the President.
In the period of relocation of the central government to the new capital, Amangeldy Shabdarbayev was appointed the deputy chief of the Presidential Guard. From January 2002, he was the Head of Security Service of President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
In March 2006, Lieutenant-General Shabdarbayev was appointed the KNB chairman. In this position he replaced Nartay Dutbayev, who was dismissed from the post after a scandal involving the KNB officers who carried out illegal surveillance of the opposition leader Altynbek Sarsenbayev and participated in illegal seizure of him and his two aides, that led to their killing in February 2006.
Russian Federal Security Service: mastermind of terrorist bombings in Moscow portrayed himself madman
The mastermind and the performer of terrorist attacks in Moscow in 1999, in the Intourist hotel and the shopping complex Okhotnyi Ryad were sentenced accordingly to 25 and 15 years of imprisonment by the Moscow City Court, news agency Interfax reports today.
The executor of both bomb attacks was Magomed-Zagier Gadzhiakayev, and it was Khalid Khuguyev, the "financier" of Shamil Basayev, who ordered the crimes, according to the Press office of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Moscow and Moscow region directorate. The criminal case was classified as secret and was considered behind closed doors in accordance with the legislation by three federal judges.
According to the FSB, Shamil Basayev ordered Khalid Khuguyev to organize terrorist attacks in Moscow, then Khuguyev found manufacturers of explosive devices and accomplices in Chechnya.
As Shamil Basayev was killed on July 10, 2006 during a special operation in Nazran district of Ingushetia, only two main defendants have remained in this case, Khuguyev and Gadzhiakayev.
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| Gadzhiakayev (R) at court |
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The FSB officials added that during interrogation Khuguyev ignored the investigator's questions and refused to communicate. A native of Dagestan, Magomed-Zagier Gadzhiakayev joined the ranks of Chechen rebels because of a desire to help his brother Yusup repay his debts.
After the attacks Khuguyev and Gadzhiakayev, using forged documents, were hiding in the territory of Chechnya, Dagestan, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Khalid Khuguyev was arrested by the FSB in 2002 in Saratov. Khuguyev was playing a role of a mentally ill person. Similarly, he behaved subsequently in Lefortovo remand prison, where he was transferred after being charged in the organization of terrorist acts in the Intourist hotel and Trade Centre Okhotniy Ryad, according to the FSB.
"If Gadzhiakayev during the preliminary investigation pleaded guilty and provided detailed testimony on the case, Khuguyev continued to refuse any testimony", Interfax reports with reference to the officials of the FSB Moscow and Moscow region directorate.
There was no explosive device in Russian passenger train – Security Service of Ukraine
The Ukrainian authorities have been giving conflicting information about an incident on a Russian passenger train, news agencies are reporting today.
The Press Service of the Kharkov regional administration with reference to the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that near Kharkov in the evening on December 8 an explosive device was found in the train St. Petersburg - Sevastopol. The conductor of the train’s carriage number 9 discovered a suspicious object resembling an explosive device. The train was stopped at the Merefa station and placed into a siding. The passengers of the train were quickly evacuated, and a suspicious object was destroyed at the station platform by security service’s experts.
Meanwhile, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported that no explosive device was found on the train, Vesti expands. After inspecting the train car a bag which belonged to none of the passengers was found in the carriage number 9. The SBU operatives carried it into a free space outside and neutralized by a hydro-cannon. The the bag was checked, though no explosive devices were found. The train was also checked by the specially trained dogs, and they found nothing suspicious, Vesti notes.
Security Service of Ukraine putting anti-Semites under constant pressure
According to news portal IzRus, in the last days of November, the organization ZUBR (For Ukraine, Belarus and Russia) presented and published a book in which it blamed Jews for the genocide and trading to Israel for sale of thousands of Ukrainian children for further use for human organs. The reaction of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was instantaneous: the experts of the security service immediately found charatceristics of fomenting ethnic hatred in the publication. Then followed an indication to the General Prosecutor's Office on bringing of criminal proceedings against the ZUBR.
The appeal to the prosecutor's office demanding to stop the anti-Semitic propaganda of the ZUBR, was evidently initiated by the SBU department on combatting xenophobia. AIA reported earlier that this unit had been founded according to the directive of President Yuchshenko late in 2007.
The speed of reaction of the SBU and prosecutors on anti-Semitic demarche of the ZUBR is logical as in recent weeks, Israeli and Ukrainian media repeatedly reported on concerns of the authorities of Israel over increasing displays of anti-Semitism in Ukraine. Particular attention was paid to Judophobic statements of Uzhgorod City Mayor and presidential candidate Sergei Ratushnyak. Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a protest on this case.
On December 2, Odessa prosecutors filed criminal charges of distribution of the Internet publications of xenophobic character, news agency UNIAN reported. According to the agency, the decision to bring criminal proceedings, based on the materials of the Security Service of Ukraine Odessa region directorate, was signed by the deputy city prosecutor Sergei Kostenko. A spokesman for the Jewish community of Odessa Boleslav Kapulkin noted in this connection that "the Internet site of the organization ZUBR disseminated online texts designed to incite ethnic and religious hatred, as well as information, degrading the national dignity and insulting the religious feelings of citizens."
Leading Bulgarian journalists exposed as Communist State Security collaborators
The so-called Files Commission, which is in charge of investigating the past connection of Bulgaria’s public figures with the secret services of former Communist regime before 1989, has checked a total of 328 journalists from 20 printed media outlets; 80 others who were born after 1973 are exempt from inspection based on the provisions of the Files Act, Sofia News Agency reports.
The names of leading journalists from Bulgarian printed media who were collaborators of the so called State Security (DS), the secret police and intelligence of the Communist regime – were revealed today, news agency expands. The most popular names include Tosho Toshev, the editor-in-chief of the daily Trud, who was a collaborator between 1975 and 1990 under the pseudonym of Bor. However, all materials in Toshev’s file are discovered to have been destroyed, Sofia News Agency adds.
The former editor-in-chief of the daily 24 Chasa, Valeri Naydenov, was also a former secret agent under the name of Sasho. Sociologist Yuriy Aslanov, a political analyst who is the head of of the official polling agency working currently with the Bulgarian Socialist Party, was a DS collaborator under the pseudonym of Viktor. Two other journalists from the 24 Chasa, Alexenia Dimitrova (Vladimir) and Pencho Kovachev (Maxim) also collaborated with the DS.
Dimitri Ivanov and Svetoslav Terziev, analysts from the daily Sega, the editor-in-chief of the news site Frognews Ognyan Stefanov, the deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly Sedmichen Trud, Aneli Bacheva are also revealed to have been DS agents, news agency adds.
Failed papal assassin to be called in for questioning to Poland?
The Katowice branch of the National Remembrance Institute intends to cross-examine Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish assassin who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, who is to be released from prison early next year, Polish Radio reports. According to Italian daily La Repubblica, Ali Agca is to be released from prison on January 18, 2010.
Agca, a member of the right-wing extremist Turkish organisation the Grey Wolves, served nearly 20 years of a life sentence at high-security prisons in Italy after he shot Pope John Paul, wounding him in the abdomen.
Ali Agca initially claimed when interrogated after the attack on the Pope that he had been recruited to carry out the assassination by the Bulgarian secret services acting on the orders of Moscow. He later withdrew this, The Times of London marks in a special report.
Ferdinando Imposimato, the retired judge who led the initial inquiry and has since conducted his own research, said that 25 years after the shooting in St Peter’s Square, “many mysteries remain”. He told The Times that he remained “120 per cent convinced” that the murder attempt was planned in Moscow.
A total of 4,000 pages of documents, transferred to Poland’s National Remembrance institute from Italy, will be translated by the end of the year. Almost 3,000 pages comprise protocols of the assassin’s cross-examination.
The questioning would be part of legal proceedings concerning the assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981. The Polish investigation is progressing fast. Andrzej Drogoñ, head of the Katowice institute, told Polish Radio that “in the near future, maybe within a year and a half we will be able to finalise legal proceedings and acquaint the society with the results. Meanwhile, in the next couple of months we may expect synthesis of our findings.”
In April 2006, the Katowice branch of the National Remembrance Institute resolved to embark on an investigation into an alleged plot of Communist secret services coordinating the assassination attempt on John Paul II in May 1981, radio adds.
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