Exiled Chechen independence leader Akhmed Zakayev has been freed from custody in Poland after being arrested earlier in the day on a Russian warrant accusing him of terrorism, ABC News reports.
"Poland respects democratic values," Mr Zakayev said in a live broadcast shown by TVN24 television, smiling as he left a Warsaw courthouse. He said that he planned to attend the final day of a congress of Chechens near Warsaw, the event that had drawn him to Poland in the first place.
In a written ruling, the hearing judge Piotr Schab said he had taken into consideration the fact that in 2003 Mr Zakayev was granted political asylum in Britain, where he is now based.
Prosecutors have seven days to lodge an appeal against the ruling. But with Mr Zakayev free to travel as he pleases, the issue of his possible extradition became purely theoretical.
51 year-old Mr Zakayev had arrived in Poland on Thursday to attend a three-day congress of some 300 exiles from conflict-torn Chechnya. He travelled to the country despite warnings from Polish authorities that he risked being taken into custody. Mr Zakayev was the European representative of Chechen separatist president Aslan Maskhadov, who died fighting Russian forces in 2005.
Chechen exile leader freed in Poland
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