Kremlin critic shot in Ingushetia

[R.A. Hettinga]

This guy didn't read enough Thomas Paine.

Cheers,
RAH
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<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/7590719.stm>

BBC NEWS / EUROPE


19:37 GMT, Sunday, 31 August 2008 20:37 UK

Kremlin critic shot in Ingushetia

The owner of an internet site critical of the Russian authorities in  
the volatile region of Ingushetia has been shot dead in police custody.

Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the ingushetiya.ru site, was a vocal critic  
of the region's administration.

The Russian prosecutor's office said an investigation into the death  
had been launched, Russia media report.

A post on Yevloyev's site says he was detained by police after landing  
at the airport of the main town, Nazran.

The website owner was taken to hospital but died from his injuries.

Reports quoting local police said Yevloyev had tried to seize a  
policeman's gun when he was being led to a vehicle. A shot was fired  
and Yevloyev was injured in the head.

Fierce critic

Yevloyev was a thorn in the side of Ingush President Murat Zyazikov, a  
former KGB general.

His website reported on alleged Russian security force brutality in  
Ingushetia, an impoverished province of some half a million people,  
mostly Muslims, which is now more turbulent than neighbouring Chechnya.

President Zyazikov had been on the same flight as Yevloyev.

Ingushetia borders Chechnya and has suffered from overflowing unrest.

There is a low-level insurgency, with regular small-scale ambushes  
against police and soldiers.

In June 2008, the Human Rights Watch group accused Russian security  
forces there of carrying out widespread human rights abuses.

HRW said it had documented dozens of arbitrary detentions,  
disappearances, acts of torture and extra-judicial executions.