Magomed Yevloyev

Magomed Yakhyаvich Yevloyev (; 22 November 1971 – 31 August 2008) was a Russian journalist, lawyer, and businessman, and the owner of the news website Ingushetiya.ru, known for being highly critical of Murat Zyazikov, the President of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia locating in the North Caucasus region. Magomed Yevloyev is not to be confused with the Ingush rebel leader Akhmed Yevloyev, who is also known as Magomed, or with the 20-year-old also named Magomed Yevloyev who is suspected of being a suicide bomber in the Domodedovo International Airport bombing.

Early life and education Magomed Yevloyev was born in the town of Malgobek, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now in the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia) in 1971. In 1992, Yevloyev graduated from Saratov Law Institute (Саратовский Юридический Институт). Weeks before his killing, it was rumoured that Magomed knew his life was in danger and he had planned on seeking political asylum in a European Union country. Local police claimed that Yevloyev was shot after he had attempted to grab an assault rifle from one of the police officers in the car. Human rights groups have rejected this account of Yevloyev's death, and the United States State Department has called for an investigation of the killing and for those responsible to be "held to account for what happened". A spokesman for Vladimir Putin has said that an investigation will take place, but that Yevloyev had resisted arrest.

In July 2008, Human Rights Watch documented dozens of arbitrary detentions, disappearances, acts of torture, and extrajudicial executions in Ingushetia.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe denounced Yevloyev's killing as an "assassination" aimed at cracking down on dissent in Ingushetia. The killing also triggered calls for Ingushetia's independence from Russia. The organizer of the protest rally, Magomed Khazibiyev, declared that the Ingush opposition would demand independence, appealing to Russia's recognition of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as precedent.

The funeral of Yevloyev developed into an anti-government protest, in which, according to organizers, several thousands participated. Early on 2 September, police dispersed a sleeping crowd of around 50 men who remained in the main square in Nazran, Ingushetia's capital city.

His death investigation case is classified as "Murder by negligence" according to the Criminal Code of Russia. Another criminal case for his illegal detention (according to the investigators, police did not have the right to arrest him when they did) was opened in February 2009, but withdrawn in March 2009.

Court On 11 December 2009, a court in Ingushetia found Ibragim Yevloyev guilty of unintentionally murdering Magomed Yevloyev. Ibragim Yevloyev was sentenced to two years of a "colony-settlement". In February 2010 his sentence was mitigated to two years of freedom restriction.

Relatives of Magomed Yevloyev do not trust the official version. In their view, the owner of Ingushetiya.Ru was murdered intentionally. The family addressed the European Court on Human Rights with a complaint.