In May 1998, the Chechnya's Islamic court sentenced Raduyev in absence to four years in prison for allegedly attempting to overthrow Maskhadov, but made no attempt to arrest him. In September 1998, Raduyev announced a "temporary moratorium" on acts of terrorism. As a sign of his good gesture towards Russia, Raduyev claimed that it was he who had freed nine kidnapped Russian servicemen from their captors. He also became conflicted with the Islamist circles and called for a ban of "Wahhabism" in Chechnya. In January 1999, he backed the republic's parliament in its conflict with the Sharia Court. His private army-style militia, some 1,000-strong and called "General Dudayev's Army", was reportedly involved in several train robberies.