The murderers of Russian journalist were sentenced to 21 years in jail
The murder of a Russian television journalist Ilyas Shurpaev, which happen in March of this year in Moscow, has been fully investigated and last week the suspects were sentenced by a Supreme Court of Tajikistan to 21 years of imprisonment in a colony with a strict regime. Earlier this year I was reporting about the murder. The initial suspects, the Tajik nationals admitted their guilt.
Yatimov, 24, and Mukhiddinov, 20, earlier said they had not planned to kill Shurpayev, but they were forced to kill him when the journalist put up resistance as they tried to rob him.
Yatimov said he had met the reporter on March 12 and that Shurpayev had offered him money for sex. The suspects allegedly then learnt that Shurpayev had recently received a large sum of money from Daghestan, and decided to rob him.
After killing the journalist, the two men set fire to his apartment. However, the blaze was put out before it had time to spread, and Russian police later discovered the victim with a belt around his neck and multiple stab wounds.
One of the interesting things about this story is that the victim and his murderers got acquainted through a social network Odnokalssniki.ru, a Russian prototype of Facebook which is becoming very popular in Russia and other former Soviet republics. The suspects were also found thanks to Odnoklassniki, when the police was searching for evidences. So, I think everyone should be careful to have any relations through this kind of network, especially with people who you never met before.
on August 3rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
The international media has picked up on this story too, both Reuters and the IHT offer less details than Vadim offers above.
The IHT article comments on the rather high number of contract killings in Russia and the economic hardship in Tajikistan by way of analysis, but the fact that Russia allowed the two alleged murders to be tried in Dushanbe (rather than being extradited) is also interesting.
on August 4th, 2008 at 6:50 am
I think it was a wise decision of Russia because the process would be much longer in Russia and it would be all showed by media for the Russian public, which could rise a anti-Tajik sentiments. Consequently there could be more killings of Tajiks by Russian radical groups.
on August 4th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Do you have any proof, beyond allegations in the Russian press, that the two actually had their profiles on Odnoklassniki? I have been looking into the case, typed their names using both Latin and Russian scripts but found nothing.
Did you attend the trial? The case seems to be murky. Shurpayev’s friend have been dismissing allegations in their blogs and in local press reports, i.e. that his mom’s jewelry was left intact and that he never owned golden watches. A source in TJ also said the two changed their testimonies in the court, tried to pass a guilt on each other. Any comments?
on August 5th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Well, I don’t have any proof Mazaffar. I remeber reading a blog of his friend or someone close to him right after his death. It was written there. To be honest I didn’t check if he actually had an account on Odnoklassniki. If you didn’t find the account, it does not mean that it was not there. It could be deleted, because there was too much of hate-speech about his sexuality in forums and blogs.
on August 5th, 2008 at 5:58 am
I didn’t attend the trial.