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 firearms)  

Impunity

trial, no sentence, June 2010  

[Update, June 2010]

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 Articles 105 (murder), 222 (illegal firearms dealing) and, additionally, Article 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. He had previously worked as chief editor of "Molodyozh Dagestana" periodical and then as deputy minister for information, ethnic policy and external ties.

Speaking on radio station Echo Moskvy Andrei Melamedov, former chief editor of the local "Nastoyashchee vremya" newspaper, 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 Ilyas Shurpayev [see entry].


SUPREME COURT RETURNS CASE FOR INVESTIGATION (June 2010)

In June 2010 the Supreme Court of Dagestan returned the Abashilov case for further investigation. The trial of his alleged murderers had almost reached its final stages: all that remained were the closing statements by the two sides and the issuing of a verdict. The court also resolved that the case against the suspected perpetrators be combined with that against the instigators of the crime, whose identity had not been established.

These measures were taken in response to a request made by Shamil Abashilov, son of the murdered director of Dagestan television. The defence for the two accused, Ruslan Gitinomagomedov and Elchin Gasanov, had also submitted three petitions for the cases to be combined, on the grounds that those behind the killing would not otherwise be found, but their requests had been refused. The detention of the accused in custody was extended until 25 September 2010.

The judge presiding at this trial by jury announced that the right of the accused to a defence had been violated during the investigation since the indictment did not name the motive for the crime they had allegedly committed and the guilt of the accused had not been detailed. Other violations during the investigation, the court considered, was a failure to keep Shamil Abashilov sufficiently informed of the course of the investigation and of the result of specialist tests. Procedural norms had been disregarded, furthermore, when establishing the identity of accused Elchin Gasanov.

Following the contract killing of Gadji Abashilov on 21 March 2008 three persons were arrested in the Stavropol Region three months later and charged with his murder. The case was transferred to the Supreme Court in May 2009 and the trial opened in May 2010. The accused did not admit their guilt.

GDF monitoring, June 2010