Dubai - Authorities in Dubai on Sunday accused Chechen deputy prime minister Adam Delimkhanov of being behind the murder of former Chechen rebel commander Sulim Yamadayev in the city last week.

Dubai's police chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim told a press conference that one of the weapons found after the murder belonged to Delimkhanov, according to the al-Arabiya news channel.

Tamim added that a Tajik and an Iranian, were being held for questioning in connection with the slaying of Yamadayev, who at the time of his death was a bitter rival Kremlin-appointed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Yamadayev was attacked by unidentified gunmen in an underground garage at his home in Dubai last Saturday. He was shot in the chest and shoulder, according to reports.

In September, his brother Ruslan, a deputy in Russia's lower house of parliament, was shot dead in an apparent contract killing in central Moscow.

The brothers were part of a powerful Chechen clan who fought the Kremlin during the first secessionist war in the early 1990s, before changing sides. In 2004, they were named Heroes of Russia, one of the country's highest honours. dpa