Prominent Critic of Kremlim Shot While in Police Custody

By Sarah Benczik
Impuninty Watch Reporter, Europe

NAZRAN, Russia - Mogomed Yevloyev, a vocal critic of Russian action in Ingushetia and owner of a controversial internet site (ingushetiya.ru) was shot while in Russian police custody today.

Yevloyev was shot shortly after being escorted into a Russian police car to be taken in for questioning after he arrived in Ingushetia's airport.  The lawyer for the website, Kaloi Akhilgov, reported that Russian police met Yevloyev at the steps of his aircraft, put him in a Volga saloon car, and drove him away, and "as they drove he was shot in the temple... They threw him out of the car near the hospital."

Ingush opposition activist Magomed Khazbiyev said Yevloyev was found lying near a Nazran hospital with a bullet in his temple.

Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee in the Prosecutor General's Office, reported that Yevloyev died at the hospital while on the operating table. He also reported that the Investigative Committee has opened an investigation into the death that might lead to charges being filed against the local police.

A Russian police spokesman said Yevloyev was detained and died in an "incident" while being taken for interrogation.  Interfax reported that Ingush police detained Yevloyev in connection with an investigation into an explosion in Nazran, the main city in Ingushetia.  The Moscow Times reports that while inside the police car, Yevloyev attempted to wrestle an assault rifle away from one of the officers and was accidentally shot in the head during the scuffle.

Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based media-rights watchdog, issued a statement today declaring that "It is essential that the international community, and especially the European Union, demands an explanation for what really happened."  The Moscow division of Human Rights Watch said Yevloyev's death "in such suspicious circumstances, can only raise questions."  The Moscow Helsinki Group and Memerial have also called on authorities to investigate Yevloyev's death.

According to the Moscow Times, in August the Moscow City Court upheld a lower court's decision to close Ingushetiya.ru on charges of carrying extremist content. The web site's editor-in-chief, Rosa Malsagova, has fled Russia with her three sons and applied for political asylum in France, saying she and her family had received threats from Ingush officials.

Officals and spokesmen for the Russian government as well as opposition leaders fear that Yevloyev's death may lead to an escalation in violence in Ingushetia.  Akhilgov warned, "There might be a civil war in Ingushetia after the relatives bury Yevloyev." 

Ingushetia's southern border touches Georgia; Chechnya lies to the east.

For more information, please see:

Associated Press - Deputy says Russian Police kill web site owner - 31 August 2008

BBC - Kremlin critic shot in Ingushetia - 31 August 2008

The Moscow Times - Ingushetiya.ru Owner Shot Dead - 1 September 2008

Telegraph - Anti-Kremlin website founder dies in police 'incident' - 1 September 2008