- Id
- 57
- Date
- 21/03/2008
- First
- Gadji
- Surname
- ABASHILOV
- Sex/Age
- M, 58
- Incident
- homicide
- Motive
- J
- Place
- street
- Job
- director
- Medium
- TV/radio
- Federal District Plus
- North Caucasus
- Street, Town, Region
- Makhachkala, Dagestan
- Freelance
- no
- Local/National
- local
- Other Ties
- Cause of Death
- murder, shot
- Legal Qualification
- 105 (murder) & 222 (illegal arms dealing)
- Impunity
- investigation
Gadji Abashilov, the head of Dagestan’s State TV and radio broadcasting company, was shot dead in his car around 8 pm on 21 March 2008 in Makhachkala. Unidentified assailants killed Abashilov outright and his driver was taken to hospital seriously wounded.
A criminal case was opened under Article 105 (murder), Article 222 (illegal arms dealing) and 30 (intention to commit a crime). RF Prosecutor General Yury Chaika took the case under his personal supervision. The car and weapons used by the suspects were soon found.
Abashilov was appointed as head of Dagestan’s STRC a year ago. Before that he was chief editor of Molodyozh Dagestana and then deputy minister for information, ethnic policy and external ties.
Speaking on Echo Moskvy Andrei Melamedov, former chief editor of the Nastoyashchee vremya, said that it was difficult to say where the true reasons for the tragic death lay. Abashilov and Ilyas Shurpayev were both on a list of people not to be mentioned in the newspaper but that did not account for their deaths. Abashilov had earned many enemies in Dagestan because of his active support for the current president of the republic, added Melamedov.
On 29 March the majority of Dagestan newspapers appeared with a blank third page in protest against the murders of Abashilov and Shurpayev.