Ilyas Shurpayev

Ilyas Imranovich Shurpayev (Russian: Ильяс Имранович Шурпаев; 25 July 1975, Makhachkala – 21 March 2008, Moscow) was a Russian television journalist and Channel One (Russia) correspondent.

Life and career[]

Shurpayev was born in Makhachkala, Dagestan, and graduated from a local university with a specialization in philology. He worked for Channel One and mostly served in Russia's North Caucasus region, including Dagestan and Chechnya.

Death[]

On 21 March 2008, Shurpayev was found dead in his apartment in Moscow with stab wounds and a belt around his neck. A fire was set in the apartment after the attack, and a sum of money was stolen. Hours before his death, Shurpayev wrote a blog post, entitled "Now I am a dissident!", saying that the owners of a Dagestan newspaper had banned his column and told its staff not to mention his name in publications.^[1]

The investigations committee of the Russian prosecutor's office opened a criminal case into the murder.^[2]

On the night he was murdered, he asked the concierge to admit two young men to his building, saying they were his guests. A week later it was reported^[3] that Shurpayev met them in a park known as a popular place for gay liaisons. The two suspects were Tajikistani, and one of them had served a term for robbery.^[4] Both men fled to Tajikistan.

On 30 July 2008, two Tajikistani citizens, 25-year-old Masrudzhon Yatimov and 21-year-old Nadzhmiddin Mukhiddinov, were found guilty of Shurpayev's murder by the Supreme Court of Tajikistan and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment each. Both admitted their guilt.^[5]

References[]