TMCnet News
Swedish authorities shut down Chechen separatist Web siteThe Associated Press Swedish police have shut down a Chechen separatist Web site following Russian complaints that the site encouraged terrorism, officials and news reports said Saturday. The Kavkaz Center Web site was closed down Friday after police with a search warrant confiscated two servers from the PRQ Web hosting company in Stockholm, police spokeswoman Carolina Ekeus said. The site is regarded as a clearing house for information and a mouthpiece for Chechen rebel leaders battling Russian troops in the breakaway province. Mikael Storsjo, the owner of the confiscated servers, told Swedish news agency TT that the Russian embassy had filed a police complaint that the site incited rebellion by hailing a bloody attack in Nalchik by suspected Islamic extremists in October. Prosecutor Hakan Roswall, who ordered the servers confiscated, could not be reached for comment. The Web site has bounced around on numerous servers in the Nordics and Baltics for years, and has previously been shut down by authorities in both Finland and Lithuania. Russia initially complained to the Swedish government about the site in 2004, when it was moved to a Swedish server. On Saturday, the site had been replaced by a temporary page with a link to a different Web address with the same content as the original Kavkaz Center site. ____ On the Net: Kavkaz Center Web site: http://www.kavkazcenter.com |