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Denmark keeps Chechen in custody
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- A senior Chechen rebel sought by Moscow will remain in Danish custody another two weeks, a court has ruled. "I prolong his detention by 14 days till November 26," a Copenhagen judge told reporters. Akhmed Zakayev, a top aide to fugitive Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, was arrested in Denmark at Russia's request in late October at the end of a conference of Chechen rebels and human rights activists. He is suspected of helping to plan last month's deadly hostage crisis at a Moscow theatre that left more than 100 hostages dead. The judge said there was a risk Zakayev would try to avoid prosecution if he were freed, Reuters reported. Moscow wants Zakayev extradited, and Denmark is considering whether it has enough evidence from Russia to do so. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters the Chechen conflict must be solved by the Russian and Chechen people alone. His comments came after a meeting in Oslo, Norway, with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who urged a peaceful, political solution to the conflict. "Of course we listen to advice from our colleagues in Europe," Putin told a news conference, adding, "We don't want to turn up our noses and say that others' opinions are irrelevant." But he said: "The problem is so complicated that no one can give really good advice. ... It is an internal Russian problem to be solved between the Chechen people and the Russian federation." Following the hostage crisis, the Kremlin scrapped plans for a partial military pullout from Chechnya, where thousands have been killed in nearly a decade of fighting. Putin and Schroeder were both in Oslo on visits to Norway and met after Putin had to cancel a visit to Germany during the hostage crisis.
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