VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- The Web site of Chechen independence supporters Kavkaz-Center, which was operated from the capital, was shutdown illegally, a court ruled Tuesday.
Judge Audrius Cininas dropped administrative charges against the director of Elneta, the company that hosted the pro-Chechen Web site on its servers.
The Kavkaz-Center site was forced to close in June, when Lithuanian security agents seized the server as an evidence. The court ruled Tuesday that the department exceeded it's powers and ordered the server returned to Elneta.
The state Security Department said they seized the server and shut down the Web site because of concerns that the Kavkaz-Center was engaged in spreading "terrorist propaganda" that could trigger religious and ethnic hatred in Chechnya.
Russian forces retreated from the breakaway Russian republic after a 1994-1996 war that left separatists in charge, but troops were sent back in 1999 after the invasion of Dagestan and deadly apartment-building
bombings that were blamed on Chechen rebels.
The Web site went online in August, hosted on a server operated from the apartment of former Soviet-era dissident Viktoras Petkus.

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