The police in Austria held a suspect on Wednesday in the brazen public slaying of a Chechen exile who had formally accused Chechnya’s president of ordering and participating in kidnappings and torture, the authorities said.
The suspect is a Chechen who had been granted asylum and had lived in Austria for years, police said.
Questions have arisen about Austria’s handling of the case and the possible role of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s president, in the killing and in a prior effort at obstructing a human-rights complaint that the slain man had made.
Umar S. Israilov, 27, was a former Chechen rebel who later worked for Kadyrov before defecting and accusing him of gruesome human-rights violations. Israilov was shot in Vienna on Tuesday in an apparent contract killing.
