Michael de Laine

Russian editor murder worries watchdog

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 16th January 2009

An international organisation defending the rights of journalists wants the Russian authorities to investigate the murder of a news agency editor in Murmansk at the turn of the year.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the authorities in the northern Russian city of Murmansk to thoroughly investigate the death of Shafig Amrakhov, editor of the online news agency RIA 51, which reports news from and about the Murmansk region. 

Amrakhov died in a Murmansk hospital on 5th January 2009, having slipped into a coma after at least one unidentified assailant shot him in the head several times a week earlier. The type of gun used is known in Russia as a “traumatic pistol.” It uses rubber bullets and is considered a non-lethal weapon used for self-defence, according to the local press.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Shafig Amrakhov and angered at yet another violent attack on a Russian journalist,” CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia programme coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “We call on Murmansk authorities to thoroughly investigate the killing, including a possible connection to Amrakhov’s journalism.”

Amrakhov was attacked on the evening of 30th December 2008 by at least one unknown man waiting for him by the elevator in his Murmansk apartment building. 

Local news reports said Amrakhov was conscious immediately after the attack, and could report details of the attack to his relatives - he had called his family using the building’s intercom minutes before, asking them to buzz him in.

The assailant shot the journalist in the head and ran out. An ambulance took Amrakhov to the Murmansk Regional Hospital, where he underwent six-hour-long emergency surgery. He died six days later, having never regained consciousness, local television channel TV-21 reported.

Local police have opened a criminal case into the incident and are considering several motives for the attack, including Amrakhov’s journalism, TV-21 said. However, the channel said that the choice of the weapon suggests that the attackers aimed to intimidate rather than kill Amrakhov. 

Murmansk police have not commented on the investigation. 

According to the Moscow-based Glasnost Defence Foundation, Amrakhov has been attacked before. In 1997, an unknown assailant attacked the journalist in the entrance of his apartment building and hit him on the head with a blunt object; he suffered a concussion, the foundation reported. The attacker was never found.

In February 2008, Amrakhov publicly protested the authorities’ decision to deny him accreditation for then-President Vladimir Putin’s last press conference as head of state. In his public letter - carried by local media - Amrakhov also criticized the economic policy of Murmansk governor Yuri Yevdokimov. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, non-profit organization founded in 1981. CPJ promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.