Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev

MOSCOW (AP) - Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev, a former Chechen rebel commander and top official in the region's rebel government, died Sunday of complications from leukemia while serving a 15-year prison term for terrorism, officials said.

Atgeriyev died at a prison hospital in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, the Russian Justice Ministry said. No signs of violent death were found, the ministry said.

However, a rebel spokesman accused the Russian government of foul play, saying a healthy Atgeriyev was killed by authorities.

Atgeriyev was born in 1969, making him either 32 or 33 when he died.

He fought in the 1994-1996 Chechnya war with Russia and was believed to be one of the masterminds - along with prominent rebel Salman Raduyev - behind a 1996 raid on the southern Russian town of Kizlyar in which 78 people were killed. Rebels took hundreds of hostages at a hospital and used some as human shields.

After the war, Atgeriyev became deputy prime minister and head of security in Aslan Maskhadov's rebel government. However, when the conflict resumed in 1999, Maskhadov and other rebel leaders suspected him of cooperating with Russian authorities.

In December, Atgeriyev was sentenced to 15 years in prison for terrorism and hostage-taking, while Raduyev was sentenced to life in prison.