Aggravated crimes in N Caucasus down

Aggravated crimes in N Caucasus down

The number of serious crimes in the North Caucasus has been falling, Russia’s Investigative Committee says.

During a conference in the Chechen capital Grozny, the Committee’s Chairman Alexander Bastrykin reported a 27-percent drop in the number of aggravated offences in Chechnya and praised investigating teams in North Ossetia and Chechnya for achieving tangible results in probing corruption.

RIAN

MOSCOW, December 16 (Itar-Tass) —— Chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee (SK) Alexander Bastrykin visited the family of acting chief of the SK branch in the Sovetsky district of Makhachkala Arsen Gadzhibekov, who was killed on the footsteps of his house on Thursday.

“Alexander Bastrykin had an urgent meeting in Makhachkala to focus on the work of the SK branches to ensure security of the SK officers. The meeting heard a report on the progress of the investigation in several high-profile crimes, which were committed in Dagestan, and the murder case against the chief of the investigation department in the Sovetsky district of Makhachkala Lieut. Col. of Justice Arsen Gadzhibekov,” spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Friday.

After the meeting Bastrykin visited the family of the killed detective and said the words of support and gratitude to Gadzhibekov’s relatives for his honest and selfless service to Russia.

“Alexander Bastrykin assured the relatives of the killed detective that the crime will be solved for sure and those who killed our detective will bear full responsibility,” Markin underlined.

01:33 16/12/2011ALL NEWS

MAKHACHKALA, December 16 (Itar-Tass) —— The founder of an independent newspaper in Dagestan was shot and killed on Thursday and gunmen also abducted a jeweler in the volatile North Caucasus republic.

Police told Tass Gadzhimurad Kamalov, the founder and director general of the independent republican newspaper Chernovik was killed close to midnight neat the premises of the newspaper in Makhachkala. The gunmen fled after the attack.

Also late on Thursday the director of the Bronnitsky Jewelry shop, Alexander Misrikhanov, was abducted in Makhachkala. Police quoted eye witnesses as saying he was forced into a car and taken away.

Police are investigating both attacks.

Newspaper founder killed in Russia's Dagestan

MAKHACHKALA, Russia, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The founder of a newspaper that investigated government corruption was shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus region, in what an international watchdog called "a lethal blow to press freedom."

A gunman shot Gadzhimurat Kamalov as he was leaving the offices of the newspaper Chernovik in the capital of Dagestan province shortly before midnight on Thursday, the regional Interior Ministry said.

Police said Kamalov was shot eight times and was pronounced dead on the way to hospital.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said journalists at Chernovik, known for reporting on corruption in the provincial administration, had been "routinely persecuted for their work".

"The assassination of Gadzhimurat Kamalov is a massive loss for independent journalism in the North Caucasus, Russia's most dangerous place for reporters," the advocacy group's regional coordinator Nina Ognianova said in a statement.

Russian journalists who investigate corruption face serious risks, particularly in the provinces, where authorities are less likely to face scrutiny over attacks on journalists.

Predominantly Muslim Dagestan is plagued by violence stemming from an Islamist insurgency rooted in the 1990s separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya as well as conflicts over business and political power.

There have been 19 unsolved murders of journalists in Russia since 2000, including the 2006 killing of Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, according to the CPJ.

It lists Russia as eighth on its "Impunity Index", a list of states where journalists are killed regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. (Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Journalist shot dead in Russia’s Dagestan

http://en.rian.ru/crime/20111216/170289433.html
01:42 16/12/2011

MAKHACHKALA, December 16 (RIA Novosti)

Khadzhimurad Kamalov, a journalist and founder of political newspaper Chernovik (Rough Copy), was shot dead in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a spokesman for the local investigation committee said on Friday.

Kamalov was killed by an unknown suspect late on Thursday night in central Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

“According to information we obtained, the crime took place on the Magomed Gadzhiyev street at 23:30 Moscow time [19:30 GMT] near the office of the newspaper that was run by Kamalov,” the spokesman said.

He added that a group of investigators continue working at the scene of the crime establishing details of the murder.

Over 70 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, according to the U.S.-based journalists’ welfare group Committee to Protect Journalists. It says 52 of those were murdered in direct reprisal for their work.

Dagestan sees frequent militant attacks on police officers and officials. The restive republic saw around 50% of all terrorist attacks in Russia in 2010.

09:12 16/12/2011ALL NEWS

Dagestan reporter could be killed for his professional activity

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/298954.html

MAKHACHKALA, December 16 (Itar-Tass) — The murder of Khadzhimurad Kamalov, 46, a well-known Dagestani journalist, director general of the Freedom of Speech company, founder and organiser of the Chernovik social political weekly is being investigated in the republic.

An official of the Dagestan Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee (SK) told Itar-Tass that a “criminal case has been opened under the RF Criminal Code articles “murder” and “illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition.” “One of the main versions of the crime is the journalist’s professional activities.”

Kamalov was killed in Makhachkala at about 23:30, Moscow time, Thursday, in Magomed Gadzhiyev Street, not far from the office of the newspaper where another issue of the weekly was being prepared for publication. He came out from the office to see off his friend when shots were fired at him. The wounded journalist was rushed to a hospital in a car, but he died on the way.

Khadzhimurad Kamalov was the author of numerous articles that criticized actions of the authorities, as well as the leadership of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan. In particular, he was conducting journalist investigations into the disappearance of people in the republic.

In September 2009, Kamalov was put on the so-called “death lists,” distributed in leaflets, anonymous authors of which threatened to persistently “destroy bandits and take revenge for the police officers and civilians.”

The newspaper’s editorial office since 2003 has repeatedly been under legal proceedings, there have been attempts at closing it. There was a period when not a single printing house of Dagestan agreed to print Chernovik, and its staff had to publish it in the neighbouring regions in the North Caucasus.

The last high-profile legal action against the publication ended with acquittal of the newspaper’s staff whose members were accused of extremism.

Chernovik weekly has been described by Reporters Without Borders as “Dagestan’s leading independent newspaper.” From 2008 to 2011, following a series of articles critical of the Federal Security Service’s counterinsurgency tactics, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Nadira Isayeva, was involved in a high-profile prosecution for “inciting hatred toward law enforcement officials” and other charges. Chernovik reporters Magomed Magomedov, Artur Mamayev and Timur Mustafayev were also charged, along with their lawyer Biyakai Magomedov. International press freedom organisations ARTICLE 19, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists all protested the charges, the latter awarding Isayeva a 2010 International Press Freedom Award for risking her “freedom and security” for her reporting. All five were later acquitted following a trial Isayeva described as “a test for the institution of press freedom” in Dagestan.

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