Bloodstains may reveal B.C. man's fate (Canada)

[Redux]

The family of a man believed killed by Russian forces in Chechnya are hoping his bloodstained wallet will finally provide evidence of his fate.

Russian authorities have turned over the wallet belonging to Rudwan Khalil of Vancouver to an RCMP liaison officer in Moscow, the family's lawyer said Monday.

"The original wallet apparently has bloodstains on it," said Philip Rankin, acting for Khalil's family.

Rankin said the plan calls for the wallet to be sent to an RCMP lab in Canada, then for investigators to obtain DNA samples from Khalil's relatives here.

Khalil has several brothers, a sister and his mother living in Vancouver.

Rankin said it's not clear how long the process will take but Khalil's eldest brother, Nasr Abubaker, said Monday he has been told the family would be contacted next week.

Russian officials said last Oct. 8 that Khalil, 26, was reported killed along with three other alleged Muslim insurgents in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

A Russian television network showed pictures of the bodies, as well as Khalil's Canadian passport and B.C. driver's licence.

Rankin said it's possible the blood belongs to one of the other men killed in the ambush by Russian special forces.

Russian authorities claimed Khalil, a Sudanese-born Eritrean who came to Canada as a teenage refugee in the early 1990s, was an explosives expert working with the rebels.

His family strongly doubts the clothing-store clerk and sometime model and movie extra willingly joined foreign jihadists fighting alongside Muslim rebels in Chechnya.

Fingerprints taken from the body before it was buried in Chechnya proved too smudged to provide a positive match with Canadian records.

Khalil and his friend Kamal Elbahja, 22, of Maple Ridge, B.C., were visiting Khalil's relatives in Dubai last August when they apparently decided to travel to Azarbaijan for the wedding of a friend who used to live in Vancouver.

They flew to neighbouring Dagestan, which like Azarbaijan borders Chechnya. Neither was heard from again and the Azari bridegroom, who once worked at a Vancouver visa brokerage company, has also disappeared.

Khalil's family is not completely convinced the body identified as him by Russian officials was the young man nicknamed Raider.

"I would hope if we could actually get a blood sample, that would at least satisfy that part of it," said Rankin.

Nasr Abubaker said this may be the last chance to find out what happened to his brother.

"If the blood matches, why not?" he said. "For me it is (the last chance). I don't know for my mom but for me it is."

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ca501a97-80de-4a17-8e6f-ff22afdfffe0

[Son_Of_Suvorov]

His family strongly doubts the clothing-store clerk and sometime model and movie extra willingly joined foreign jihadists fighting alongside Muslim rebels in Chechnya.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Here's my arm-chair analysis:

There are direct Dubai-Baku flights, so the only reason they'd fly to Dagestan first is to save money on a connection flight. I don't think think they were kidnapped at the airport terminal, so they must have had Russian visas to go outside. Chechens don't use other Muslims as slaves, so if they were kidnapped it was for ransom - but conditions are usually announced within two weeks, especially since they could hit up their Canadian and Emirate relatives for a lot of money. It's very unlikely the Russians got him by accident while he was being moved - it would be obvious that he was a prisoner, and from most accounts prisoners are moved very infrequently. If he did join the **** brigade to have some fun, he would likely have sold his passport and driver's license, or at least not kept it on himself, like most foreign volunteers I've read about. I bet Canadian documents are pretty valuable there - they don't seem all that difficult to "modify" and of course there is the generally very good reputation Canadians have around the world.

[ramy]

nah its him.

Good thing the russians killed that POS.