MOSCOW, Aug 26 (Reuters) - A man from Russia's restive Chechnya region has been arrested in connection with the killing of an ex-colonel who served a jail sentence for strangling a young woman in 2000 during the Chechen War, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.
Yuri Budanov was shot in the head four times in central Moscow on June 10 by a gunman who fled the scene, the Federal Investigative Committee said.
"Magomed Suleimanov, a native of Chechnya, was arrested," Interfax quoted the court press secretary Olga Sutyapova as saying.
Investigators believe that Suleimanov and others had been tracking Budanov, and followed him to the courtyard of his apartment building where he was shot, Interfax said.
A law enforcement source told Interfax Budanov was killed in revenge for strangling 18-year-old Elza Kungayeva in Chechnya.
Budanov was initially acquitted after he admitted to strangling Kungayeva but pleaded temporary insanity, saying he suffered a fit of rage after becoming convinced she was a rebel sniper.
He was stripped of his rank and became a symbol of the rights abuses committed by Russian forces in restive Chechnya, where federal troops fought separatists in two wars after the fall of the Soviet Union.
He also came to be seen as a hero among extreme nationalist groups.
At his retrial, Budanov was sentenced to ten years in jail but won early release in 2009, prompting bitter protests in Chechnya. (Reporting By Thomas Grove, editing by Tim Pearce)
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