| Russian authorities claim Khalil was an explosives expert helping Muslim militants who want to turn Chechnya into an independent Islamic republic. His family says Khalil was a non-political clothing salesman, part-time model and movie extra. |
A young Vancouver man reported killed in Chechnya by Russian forces went to the region reluctantly, sources told The Canadian Press on Friday. Rudwan Khalil, 26, was visiting relatives in the Middle East with a Vancouver friend last summer but disappeared after apparently going to attend another friend's wedding in Baku, Azarbaijan. There was no word until Russian authorities reported he was among four Muslim rebels killed in strife-torn Chechnya on Oct. 7. As proof, they displayed Khalil's Canadian passport and B.C. driver's licence. The Russians sent a photo of the corpse to Canadian Foreign Affairs officials last week, along with fingerprints and a copy of an airline-ticket made out to Khalil from Dubai to Makhachkala, in the Russian republic of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya and Azarbaijan. Khalil's family would not confirm his identity from the photo. | "That's not my Jimmy, no way!' |
The slim, dark-skinned refugee from Sudan was clean-shaven when he left Vancouver but the photo shows a slightly heavier bearded man. Local police took items from the family home this week hoping to lift a fingerprint to match with those sent from Russia. Sources said Foreign Affairs has formally asked the Russians to obtain a DNA sample from the body identified as Khalil. However, the body was reported buried in Chechnya soon after the firefight. Efforts to piece together Khalil's last known movements raised more questions than answers. Sources said Khalil travelled to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates in mid-summer. He spent almost a month visiting a cousin and an aunt, and briefly travelled to Jidda, Saudi Arabia, to see his retired father. He was accompanied by Kamal Elbahja of Maple Ridge, B.C., and also spent time with Azar Tagiev, a landed immigrant and former Vancouver resident who returned to Azarbaijan last spring. | The kid really hated to travel, for sure. |
Neither Elbahja nor Tagiev, who apparently now goes by the name Abdel Aziz, have been heard from since before Khalil's reported death. Sources said Elbahja and Khalil spent several days in two luxury Dubai hotels, paid for by Aziz, who left to return to Azarbaijan after trying to convince the men to go with him. However, Aziz telephoned the Vancouver pair daily and the Moroccan-born Elbahja reportedly cajoled a reluctant Khalil into travelling to Azarbaijan to join their friend. A ticket purchased for Khalil with cash carried an open-ended return date to Dubai. Relatives say Khalil was enrolled in a course at the B.C. Institute of Technology in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby and had been expected home in mid-September. Khalil was apparently under the impression he and Elbahja would fly to Baku via Moscow. They tried without success twice to obtain visas for Russia but were successful a third time with Aziz's help. Aziz, or Tagiev, worked for Vancouver-based Visa Connection Ltd., an immigration and visa brokerage firm, before returning to Azarbaijan last May. | He worked for Percy the visa fixer. |
Russian authorities claim Khalil was an explosives expert helping Muslim militants who want to turn Chechnya into an independent Islamic republic. His family says Khalil was a non-political clothing salesman, part-time model and movie extra. | Whose favorite holiday just happens to be Guy Fawke's Day. |
Khalil, Elbahja and Aziz all attended the Dar al-Madinah Islamic Society's information and prayer centre in East Vancouver. | "He was a quiet boy, said his prayers real good." |
All three apparently sat through an August 2003 lecture on the virtues of jihad by Sheik Younus Kathrada, the centre's leader. Khalil's cousin said Elbahja praised Kathrada during their stay in Dubai. Kathrada became the target of criticism earlier this month when a recording of his jihad lecture along with another talk full of anti-Semitic references were made public. Kathrada, a native of South Africa who studied in Saudi Arabia, claimed his words were taken out of context and misunderstood.| "Erm. What I meant was..." |
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