- Date
- 25/10/2009
- First
- Maksharip
- Surname
- AUSHEV
- Sex/Age
- M
- Incident
- homicide
- Motive
- ?J
- Place
- road
- Job
- director
- Medium
- Internet
- Federal District Plus
- North Caucasus
- Street, Town, Region
- Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria
- Freelance
- Local/National
- local, Ingushetia.org
- Other Ties
- opposition figure
- Cause of Death
- shot
- Legal Qualification
- Impunity
- investigation
Maksharip Aushev, a human rights activist and former owner of the website Ingushetia.org, was shot and killed in his car near Nalchik last Sunday. The police have launched a criminal investigation.
A month earlier he had narrowly escaped a kidnapping attempt. After a meeting with FSB officers in the republican government headquarters, he had been driving to Nazran when an armored personnel carrier had blocked the motorway near a traffic police checkpoint, with several special police servicemen, armed and wearing masks, attempting to kidnap him. However, he had managed to tear away, calling for help. Due to the interference of passers-by and traffic police officers he had been released, with the masked men claiming they had attempted to detain him by mistake, having received a report about his car being searched for by the law enforcers as a hijacked vehicle. They could not say why an unknown special police unit on a personnel carrier should be looking for his car – even if it had been hijacked.
Maksha Aushev became head of the Ingushetia.org website in August 2008 after the killing of the previous owner, Magomed Yevloyev, only to resign three months later in connection with the government reshuffle in Ingushetia.
Commenting on last Sunday’s tragedy, Magomed Khazbiyev, a friend of Aushev’s and the incumbent leader of the Ingush opposition, said: “The whole thing is still pretty vague. But even if we get to know the details, will that change anything? As regards Magomed Yevloyev’s killing, both the killer and the mastermind are known, and there are video sequences showing the minister’s arrival and people pushing him into a car to shoot and kill him. A year has passed since then – and what do we have? Nothing. With this kind of government at the helm, nothing can possibly change, ever.” In Khazbiyev’s view, no one will be held liable for Aushev’s killing, either.
M. Aushev was known as a consistent opponent of kidnappings and extrajudicial executions. During the last few months he was also a member of the team of experts working for Russia’s human rights ombudsman. His friends and relatives cannot explain his killing in any way: after President Murat Zyazikov’s stepping down to be replaced by Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Aushev officially said he was dropping his opposition activities because his main goal, Zyazikov’s replacement, had been achieved.
GDF digest, 450 (29 October 2009)
(http://www.gdf.ru/digest/item/1/663)