In October 2003 the Moscow Prosecutor's Office announced that charges of terrorism were exhibited to him in absentia.
On Friday an attempt upon Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev's life was made on Friday. There was an explosive device in his car, Al Arabiya TV channel reports.
His car exploded in Al-Dafna district in Doha (Qatar's capital).
Two Yandarbiyev's companions were killed in the explosion. Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was badly wounded and died in hospital.
Yandarbiyev lived in Qatar's capital over the last three years as "a refugee without the right of political activities".
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was born in Kazakhstan in 1952. From 1989 he was a literature counselor in the Checheno-Ingush Writers' Union and the chairman of the Chechen political organization Bart (Accord).
In May 1990 he organized and headed the Vainakh democratic party. Its program implied "the creation of an independent democratic state". Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was a top-level official in Chechnya under President Dzhokhar Dudayev.
In April 1993 Dudayev appointed him acting Vice President of Chechnya. Yandarbiyev was involved in ideological activities. After Dudayev's death in 1996 he was acting Chechen President for nine months.
On March 14, 1995 acting prosecutor of the Chechen Republic Baskhanov signed an order to initiate criminal proceedings against Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Sultan Geliskhanov, Taimaz Abubakirov, Shamil Basayev and other Chechen leaders and sanctions for their arrest. Yandarbiyev was accused of the abuse of power, parricide and gangsterism.
On October 9, 2001 Interpol announced him internationally wanted together with other masterminds of the armed invasion into Dagestan in autumn 1999, Aslan Maskhadov, Akhmed Zakayev, Khodzhamed Nukhayev and Kazbek Makhashev.
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was accused of participation in armed revolt, involvement into an illegal band group, and attempts on law enforcers.
During the investigation of the hostage taking in Dubrovka theatre, the special services fixed telephone conversations between terrorists and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
Earlier the Russian Prosecutor General's Office demanded Qatar's authorities to extradite Yandarbiyev.
