her apartment building in Moscow, investigators said. Prosecutors did not rule out that 48-year-old Anna Politkovskaya was killed because of her investigative work. She had written a critical book on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his campaign in Chechnya, documenting widespread abuse of civilians by government troops.
Politkovskaya’s body was found in an elevator in her Moscow apartment building, a duty officer at a police station in central Moscow told The Associated Press.
In 2001, Politkovskaya reportedly fled to Vienna for several months after receiving e-mail threats alleging that a Russian police officer she had accused of committing atrocities against civilians was intent on revenge. The officer, Sergei Lapin, was detained in 2002 based on her allegations but the case against him was closed the following year.
UKRAINIAN KILLED
Her killing comes just days after another journalist in neighboring Ukraine was killed. Thursday, October 5, apparently in a knifing incident. Evhen Opanasiuk, a student trainee at Channel 5 television, was killed at the Kiev National Economic University. He was stabbed seven times and died immediately, Russian news reports said.
Channel 5 is Ukraine’s top independent news channel. Prior to the country’s pro-democracy Orange Revolution, Channel 5 was the only news broadcaster in the country to air reports critical of the government.
The killer’s motives for the attack were not yet known and police were searching for a student from the university in connection with the crime. Both killings added to international concerns over the plight of journalists in the former Soviet Union.
Earlier this year, BosNewsLife revealed how a Ukrainian journalist covering high-level corruption and abuse of power in the Ukrainian border town of Uzhgorod was listed, in critical condition, at a local hospital, in June, after being attacked by suspected supporters of the mayor, several sources said.
"BEATEN UP"
Sergei Romanenko was beaten up in downtown Uzhgorod shortly after reporting on shady business dealings of Uzhgorod’s Mayor Sergei Ratushnyak at news website www.ua-reporter.com.
Elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, in Turkmenistan, a correspondent of US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty died in Turkmenistan in a Turkmen prison last month where she was serving a six-year sentence.
The Prague-based radio said Turkmen security officials notified relatives of Ogulsapar Muradova of her death and assured them that she died of natural causes. But the press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, said Muradova’s family identified traces of blows to the body and a wound on the head. The rights group has called for a full investigation into the journalist’s death.
Muradova was arrested in Turkmenistan in June with two opposition activists. In August, a Turkmen court found her guilty of illegal possession of weapons in a trial that raised international alarm. Journalists as well as religious minorities, including evangelical Christians, are increasingly persecuted in the region, human rights groups suggest. (This story is part of a BosNewsLife’s initiative to expand coverage on freedom of expression issues, especially in former and current Communist countries and other repressive nations. With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
