Novaya Gazeta
January 19, 2009, in Moscow , Russia
An unknown assailant wearing a ski mask shot and fatally wounded Anastasiya Baburova, 25, a freelance correspondent for the independent Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta, on January 19, at around 3 p.m. The journalist was walking in downtown Moscow with human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who had just given a press conference at the Independent Press Center that Baburova had attended and planned write about, Sergei Sokolov, Novaya Gazeta's deputy editor told CPJ.
The assailant followed the two and shot Markelov in the back of the head with a pistol fitted with a silencer, the independent business daily Kommersant reported, citing sources in the prosecutor-general's office. Baburova apparently tried to stop the killer, who had walked past her after shooting Markelov; the man then shot her in the head, Kommersant reported, citing unnamed witnesses. Markelov, 34, died immediately; Baburova died several hours later in a Moscow hospital, where she had undergone surgery, Lenta reported.
"It appears that Markelov was the main target," Sokolov told CPJ. He added that the paper is waiting for the official results of the investigation to determine whether Baburova was also targeted. According to the independent news Web site Lenta, the killer was described as a man around 5 feet 11 inches tall (180 cm), wearing dark clothes, and a green knit hat concealing all of his face but his eyes.
Baburova was a journalism student at Moscow State University and had contributed to Novaya Gazeta since October, covering the activities of neo-Nazi groups and race-motivated crimes, which have been on the rise in Moscow in recent years, Sokolov said. Baburova is the fourth Novaya Gazeta journalist killed since 2000.
Initially, Vladimir Pronin, head of the Moscow City Directorate of Internal Affairs told a news conference on January 23 that police retrieved three casings and a bullet at the crime scene, the news agency Interfax reported. But three days later, Viktor Biryukov, a spokesperson for the same police agency told the Russian daily Izvestiya that the investigation had no casings or bullets, and was unable to determine the make of the murder weapon or identify the killer.
The double murder is under the jurisdiction of Russia's top investigative agency, the investigative committee at the prosecutor-general's office, because of the crime's severity. In a statement published on the committee's official Web site, the head of the agency, Aleksandr Bastrykin, said: "The brazenness of this crime indicates that the killer was sure of his impunity. ... Society ought to be sure that the law works in this country and that no one is permitted to break it." Bastrykin pledged his agency's full resources and commitment to solving the murder.
Medium: Print
Job: Print Reporter
Beats Covered: Human Rights
Gender: Female
Local or Foreign: Local
Freelance: Yes
Type of Death: Murder
Suspected Source of Fire: Unknown Fire
Impunity: Yes
Taken Captive: No
Tortured: No
Threatened: No
