Russia detains suspected 1995 terrorist attack participant

MOSCOW - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday it had detained a suspected participant in the 1995 terrorist attack in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk, in which 129 people were killed and 415 were injured.

Its statement did not provide details of the detention of the suspect identified as Khazvakh Cherkhigov, a Russian citizen born in 1978.

The Budyonnovsk attack, in which more than 1,500 people were taken hostages, was carried out in June 1995 by a gang led by militant leader Shamil Basayev.

The terrorists then seized a local hospital and held hostages for several days, demanding the withdrawal of the Russian military from the rebel region of Chechnya.

Basayev managed to successfully negotiate a stop of the advance of Russian troops, and the attackers then returned to Chechnya under the cover of human shields.

For this crime, 31 participants have been convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment between 1995 and 2013, while 18 others have been killed, the FSB statement said.