- Date
- 08/08/2006
- First
- Alexander
- Surname
- PETROV
- Sex/Age
- M, 31
- Incident
- homicide
- Motive
- nJ
- Place
- country, village
- Job
- chief editor
- Medium
- Federal District Plus
- SIBERIA
- Street, Town, Region
- Altai Region
- Freelance
- no
- Local/National
- local
- Other Ties
- Omsk journalist
- Cause of Death
- murder, shot
- Legal Qualification
- 105.2 (murder)
- Impunity
- trial, conviction, 29 December 2006
GDF, 293
Omsk-based journalist Alexander Petrov, his wife and two children have been killed in the Altai Republic.
The journalist’s body was found on the river bank in the Ongudaisky District on August 12, and those of his wife and kids were found a few days later. A group of investigators under the republic’s Deputy Prosecutor Eduard Oshlykov was set up to conduct criminal proceedings under Article 105 (“Homicide”) of the RF Penal Code, and Russia’s Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev ordered that progress in the investigation be taken under special control.
Soon Mr. Petrov’s Mitsubishi car was found not far from the city of Gorno-Altaisk, and on August 17 the Ongudaisky District Prosecutor Arthur Surakov announced the detention of a 16-year-old suspect, a local resident, who had begun to make a confession. “So far, it has been established that the suspect acted single-handed, shooting and killing the Petrov family from an unregistered gun. We believe his purpose was to steal the car,” the prosecutor said. On the following day, however, the newspaper Kommersant said with reference to the republican police department that “Ruslan K. says he had two accomplices”.
Meanwhile, the Office of the RF Prosecutor General has posted on its website an official report reading as follows: “As a result of preliminary investigation it has been established that the Petrov couple with two underage sons, Nikita and Artyom, arrived in the Altai Republic on August 8 to spend their vacations camping out on a river bank. A local resident, Ruslan K., was returning at the time from a cattle-breeders’ settlement at Katar-Yurt on the Tuektenka river, carrying an unregistered gun. Walking near the Petrovs camp he decided to hijack their car. So he shot and wounded the couple and their children, killed them with an axe and a stone and shoved their bodies into the river. The killer drove away in the stolen car, dumping his gun in the Katun River. The investigators believe the murder was not connected with the journalist’s professional activities and was committed strictly for profit.”
Alexander Petrov, 31, was editor-in-chief of the Pravo Na Vybor magazine issued by the Regional Election Committee in Omsk. He also contributed stories to the newspapers Moskovskiye Novosti and Izvestia.