Moscow - Lawyers acting for a Russian journalist, Andrei Babitsky, who has disappeared in Chechnya, said yesterday they were taking legal steps to demand why and how he had been handed over to rebels by the Russians.
Russia's Interior Minister, Mr Vladimir Rushailo, said Mr Babitsky was well and in the hands of rebels. He said he knew the reporter was safe on the basis of intercepted radio communications and other information held by security forces. Babitsky, a Russian reporter working for US-funded Radio Liberty, was arrested in Chechnya from where he filed reports which annoyed Moscow.