14 DAY TRIAL // The owner of the only news portal in Ingushetia, a Russian province bordering Chechnya, was killed while in police arrest. After getting off the plane that was bringing him home, he was detained by the police and, as he was escorted to a waiting car, he was shot in the head. Despite being driven as soon as possible to the nearest hospital, the man died on the operating table.
Magomed Yevloyev was one of the founders of Russian language website Ingushetiya.ru, equally caustic about Russian and Ingush political policies. In May this year, local authorities began threatening him with shutting down the website unless he stopped posting “extremist” articles. Failing to obey the orders, Yevloyev was arrested a few days ago. However, his coworkers at the news portal claim that he has been executed by the authorities, and that his death was not an accident as reported.
Ingushetiya.ru cited publicist Boris Vishnevsky saying that Yevloyev's death was a political assassination. “He was one of the few people who dared to reveal the whole truth about what was happening in the republic. That's why he was persecuted and threatened to shut down his site. It was a political murder, no chance it could have been otherwise.” he said.
Human rights protection organization Reporters without Borders claims the same thing, namely that Yevloyev’s death was neither accidental nor caused by the bullet of an unknown hitman. “We are outraged by the death of Yevloyev, who repeatedly demonstrated his courage and determination by reporting independent news in Ingushetia, although he and his family were harassed and threatened,” said Reporters without Borders. “His death must not go unpunished. It is vital that the international community, especially the European Union, should demand to know what really happened and who was responsible. The explanations given by the Ingush authorities make no sense.”
This is not the first time that Russian journalists’ deaths occur in bizarre circumstances. In 2006, a female reporter covering the Chechen war was shot dead at the entrance of her apartment, while in 2008, a TV journalist was found murdered in his home. In both cases, the police found and arrested the perpetrators, but it is believed that there was more behind these two assassinations than what the public was allowed to know.