Copenhagen, Denmark ? Danish justice ministry officials said Wednesday that evidence received in a Russian extradition request for a senior Chechen rebel focuses on alleged criminal acts in the late 1990s and fails to link him to last month’s hostage crisis in Moscow.

Akhmed Zakayev, a top aide of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, was apprehended Oct. 30 after a legal meeting of Chechen rebels and human rights activists in Copenhagen.

He has been jailed until at least Nov. 12 pending an investigation into Russia’s request for his handover.

Danish police said at the time of the arrest that they had proof from Russia via Interpol that “Zakayev is suspected of a series of terror attacks during the period 1996-1999 and is suspected of taking part in the planning of the hostage-taking crisis in Moscow.”

But Justice Minister Lene Espersen said evidence included in the formal extradition request did not link Zakayev to the raid by Chechen separatists on a theater in Moscow, which ended Oct. 26.

“Danish authorities have to consider whether an extradition can be made on these grounds,” she told lawmakers on Wednesday. “We therefore asked for more evidence.”

Nov. 30 has been set as a deadline for Russia to provide sufficient evidence.

Russian prosecutors have said that Zakayev led a gang that engaged in killings of civilians, police and other officials, trading of wounded and dead Russian bodies and the invasion of Dagestan, a Russian region bordering on Chechnya, in summer 1999.

Russian forces retreated from Chechnya after a 1994-1996 war that left separatists led by Maskhadov in charge, but troops were sent back in 1999 after the invasion of Dagestan and deadly apartment-building bombings that were blamed on the rebels.

Russia has poured increased effort into the Chechnya fight in the wake of last month’s hostage-taking by Chechen gunmen in Moscow and rebel attacks on Russian helicopters with shoulder-fired missiles.

Three military helicopters have been shot down since August just outside the main Russian base at Khankala. After the most recent attack last week, the military demolished several apartment houses that the rebels may have used for cover a move that sparked controversy.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday that the military would not cut its presence in Chechnya until the rebel leaders were eliminated, and President Vladimir Putin, hoping for Chechens’ support, promised that the troops would not target civilians.