Magomed Yevloev’s killer gets two years minimum security imprisonment

Former head of security for the Minister of Internal Affairs in Ingushetia, Ibragim Yevloev has been sentenced to two years penal colony – settlement (the most lenient form of deprivation of liberty) for the killing of the head of the opposition website Ingushetia.Ru, Magomet Yevloev.

            Representatives of the prosecution said that they were fully satisfied with the court ruling. The court thus accepted the version put forward by the investigators that Magomed Yevloev died as the result of an accidental shot. The lawyers of the accused had claimed that the victim had himself provoked the shot.

            Relatives and colleagues of the opposition figure insist that the crime was deliberate and consider the sentence inadequate. They have stated that they plan to appeal.

            Magomed Yevloev was killed on 31 August 2008 after being detained at the Ingushetia Magas Airport.  Yevloev had travelled on the same plane as the President of Ingushetia. After the latter was met by a cortege, a row of cars with the Minister of Internal Affairs drove up to the plane and took Yevloev away.

            In November last year, the Nazran District Court in Ingusheita found that the detention by the law enforcement bodies of Yevloev was unlawful. 

            In July 2008 a Russian court closed the website “ “for spreading extremist material”.  The prosecutor’s office had sought the closure of the site in connection with the publication of an interview with the leader of the Ingush opposition Mysa Keligov which had previously been found extremist by the court.  The ruling was appealed, but had recently been upheld by the Moscow City Court.  The Chief Editor of the site has since asked for political asylum in the West.

            New information reported at http://echo.msk.ru/