Poison spy's friend mocks Russian extradition talk

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) An exiled Chechen leader and friend of poisoned ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko accused Moscow today of trying to frighten him by resuming a criminal investigation aimed at extraditing him.

Russian media said prosecutors had resumed a criminal investigation into Chechen Akhmed Zakayev, whom Moscow accuses of a string of terrorist offences which he vehemently denies.

''The prosecutor-general's office and the relevant British authorities are currently considering the matter of his extradition to the Russian justice bodies,'' Itar-Tass news agency said.

Zakayev, who defeated a previous Russian extradition attempt in 2003 when he won political asylum in London, laughed out loud when asked for his reaction.

He said the Kremlin was trying to scare him into silence after he blamed it for the murders of campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya and Litvinenko, a former security agent who was Zakayev's friend and neighbour in London.

Litvinenko, who had become an outspoken Kremlin critic, died a slow, painful death from radiation poisoning last month and accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering his assassination, a charge dismissed by Moscow as ridiculous.

''You can liquidate a person or you can frighten him. Either way, if he shuts up, you've reached your goal. Of course they want the same thing from me,'' Zakayev told Reuters.

A British Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that Zakayev has refugee status but would not say whether Russia had made a new approach seeking his handover.

Asked if he was confident of British protection, Zakayev said: ''I fully rely on the law of Great Britain.'' He said he was certain Russia had no new evidence against him beyond the charges it raised in the 2003 extradition case, ''where they were disgraced''. A British judge ruled at the time that Zakayev faced a risk of torture if sent back to Russia.

Zakayev was a leading figure in the Chechen separatist movement which fought two wars against Russia in the 1990s, and is accused by Moscow of murder, terrorism and other offences.

Any new bid for his extradition could create new tensions in Moscow's relations with Britain, already strained by Litvinenko's deathbed accusations against the Kremlin.

Moscow has said it will send its own investigators to London after Scotland Yard conducted inquiries in Moscow. Zakayev said he was willing to meet them in the presence of British police and his lawyers, provided it was not at the Russian embassy, which is legally Russian territory.

''I'm ready to help in any way with the conduct of a thorough investigation to establish the truth and bring to justice whoever was guilty of this monstrous act,'' he said.

Reuters SY DB2321