Khangoshvili, Who Was Killed In Berlin, Ferried Terrorists To Syria In 2013 - Source

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2020) In 2013, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen who was killed in Germany in August 2019, organized a channel for the transportation of terrorists from Georgia's Pankisi Gorge to Syria via Turkey, a Russian security source familiar with the materials of the criminal cases told Sputnik.

On Wednesday, the trial against Russian citizen Vadim Sokolov began in Berlin. Sokolov is charged with Khangoshvili's murder. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that the Russian authorities had discussed with Germany the extradition of Khangoshvili in connection with his involvement in terrorism, including the explosions in the Moscow metro.

"In 2013, when living in Georgia, Khangoshvili served as a regional coordinator in the structure of the Imarat Kavkaz international terrorist organization [banned in Russia], kept communication between Doku Umarov and foreign representatives of this organization," the source said.

At the same time, Khangoshvili recruited Muslim youth in the Pankisi Gorge as terrorists, the source noted.

"He also organized a channel for the illegal transfer of trained militants and weapons via Turkey to the Syrian Arab Republic [where a civil war was ongoing]," the source added.

The appeals of the Russian intelligence agencies to their German colleagues to extradite Khangoshvili were informally rejected, and a formal request from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office on this issue was never sent for this reason, Putin said. He also noted that the person killed in Berlin had taken an active part in hostilities on the side of the separatists in the Caucasus.

According to the German investigation, Sokolov received the task of eliminating Khangoshvili from Russian state agencies. The German prosecutor's office charged him with murder and illegal possession of a semi-automatic weapon. Last year, Germany declared two employees of the Russian Embassy in Berlin personae non grata in connection with the murder of Khangoshvili.