Date

23/10/2010  

First

Yevgeny  

Surname

FEDOTOV  

Sex/Age

M  

Incident

homicide  

Motive

?J  

Place

 

Job

journalist  

Medium

press  

Federal District Plus

SIBERIA  

Street, Town, Region

Transbaikal Region  

Freelance

 

Local/National

local, Extra newspaper  

Other Ties

 

Cause of Death

beaten  

Legal Qualification

part 4, Article 111 (manslaughter)  

Impunity

investigation  

The Investigations Committee for the Trans-Baikal Region has opened an criminal case to investigate the death of journalist Yevgeny Fedotov (Maisky). After a preliminary checking of the facts the Committee has classified his death as manslaughter under part 4 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code (“Infliction of a grave injury, leading to the death of the victim by negligence”).

A Committee official told ZabInfo’s correspondent that Fedotov died following a quarrel on 19 October 2010 with a neighbour who struck him several times over the head. The next day Fedotov was taken to hospital where he died several days later. The suspect has been detained.

“As of today we have every grounds for believing that this killing occurred as part of a private dispute and is not linked to the victim’s activities as a journalist,” said Marina Maretskaya, deputy director of the regional Investigations Committee. The suggestion that there might be such a link to Fedotov’s work will be checked among other interpretations but at present “we have an individual who has given testimony that this was a personal dispute.”

Yevgeny Fedotov (Maisky) worked as a correspondent for the Extra newspaper and wrote freelance for other media in Chita. He wrote particularly about crime and in 2001 was recognised by the Chita Region governor’s award “For his conscientious work and great personal contribution to the development of the media”.

Source: Glasnost Defence Foundation (Baikal24, 8 November; ZabInfo, 8 & 9 November)