NEWS: Lithuania Shuts Down Chechen Rebel Website, page 1

Ending several days of speculation as to whether or not the Lithuanian government would act to shut down a website used to distribute information on Chechen rebel activity, security forces today issued orders that the server be shut down until an investigation into charges of incitement and promotion of terrorism by the operators can be concluded.

BBC News
The website operating from the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, was shut by the country's state security department. It displays a message saying that it has been temporarily disabled pending the outcome of a court decision on its legality. A spokesman for the security department, Vytautas Makauskas, told Russian media the decision was "in accordance with the laws of the country".
A website could be stopped temporarily if "the fact that it disseminates information which contains propaganda of terrorism and incites interethnic strife is in evidence", Ria news agency quoted him as saying.

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Russia had been placing pressure on Lithuania to close the site since a $20 million reward for assistance in the capture of Russian President Vladimir Putin was published there, but the question of the constitutionality of such action was in question. Lithuanian State Security had been investigating the pro-Chechen site for some time, but the decision to take action was made today by the Lithuanian Defense Council.

The Putin bounty was a direct response to a reward of $10 million offered by Russia for information leading to the arrests of Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, thought to have organized the Beslan school hostage crisis.

Among other information distributed by the site is a claim that a military helicopter that crashed in Chechnya was shot down by separatists and a statement by rebel leader Basayev that claims responsibility for the now infamous school siege.

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