Golden gun smuggled by diplomat, police say

Police say the weapon that killed a Chechen in Dubai was thought to have entered the UAE under a diplomatic visa.

Sulim Yamadayev, right, who was murdered in Dubai, and Adam Delimkhanov, who police believe masterminded the killing.

DUBAI // The golden gun used to assassinate Sulim Yamadayev is believed to have been smuggled into Dubai under a diplomatic visa, a senior official for the Dubai Police Criminal Investigations Department said. Yamadayev was shot to death in the car park under his apartment block at the Jumeirah Beach Residence on March 28. Police later retrieved a gold-plated gun near the scene. A senior police source told The National that they believed the Makarov PM 9mm gun was smuggled inside the luggage of a Russian official on a diplomatic trip to Dubai. As such, it was not checked by customs staff. The source said: "When a diplomat comes in the country, do you search him? Of course not, and in this case this is how they smuggled the gun into the country."

In a television interview on Thursday Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the head of Dubai Police, stood by his previous claims that Adam Delimkhanov, a member of the Russian parliament and a former deputy prime minister of Chechnya, had masterminded the assassination. Gen Tamim said he had "strong and solid" evidence that proved the involvement of the five others suspects in the case. He too indicated that the gun used to kill Yamadayev was brought into Dubai through diplomatic links. He called on Russian officials to hand over the suspects to the custody of Dubai Police. However, the Russian government has previously said it would not hand over Mr Delimkhanov to Dubai.

"Delimkhanov is officially wanted by Interpol and we will do our best to get him. Today he is in power but tomorrow he will be out of it and the request for his arrest will still be listed. He can end this situation by turning himself in to the Russian authorities for investigation." He said the police had been able to prise confessions from the Iranian and Tajik suspects being held in connection with the murder. They had provided more than just "ordinary confessions", he said, responding to the criticism from the Chechen leader and director of the Islamic centre in Russia. "The Russians are capable of controlling the situation. It's completely unacceptable to leave the Chechen gangsters to carry on their crimes in more than one country and wage conflict on someone else's country."

Meanwhile, Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said on Thursday that he was still waiting to receive "any kind of official report" about the murder from embassy staff in the UAE. The Russian consulate in Dubai was unavailable for comment. [e-mail]