Monday, January 19, 2009

Russian lawyer and journalist assassinated in Moscow


Russian attorney Stanislav Markelov was shot dead today in Moscow.  He had represented the family of an 18-year old Chechen girl who was strangled to death by a Russian army officer in 2000.  The BBC reports that "a newspaper journalist who was with him, Anastasia Baburova from the Novaya Gazeta, was badly wounded in the attack and died a few hours later in hospital."  

Anastasia was 25 years old.  


Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Chechen exile gunned down in Vienna

Chechen human rights activist Umar Israilov was murdered on Tuesday while leaving a grocery store in Vienna, where he had settled after fleeing Chechnya.  The International Herald Tribune story by Chris Chivers is here.