DUSHANBE, July 2, 2008, Asia-Plus — Case of two Tajik nationals charged with killing of a TV Channel One reporter Ilyas Shurpayev has moved to Tajikistan’s Supreme Court, Asia-Plus has learned from Bahodur Homidov, an office with the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
According to him, investigation into the case was finished and the case moved to the Supreme Court on June 30.
We will recall that two Tajik nationals – Masrurjon Yatimov and Najmiddin Muhiddinov – were detained on March 29 on suspicion of having killed a Russian journalist.
The two men allegedly killed Russian television journalist Ilyas Shurpayev, who was found strangled in his Moscow apartment. Russian firefighters discovered the body of Shurpayev on March 21 when they arrived to extinguish a fire in his apartment that had apparently been set by the killers in an attempt to cover up their crime. Shurpayev had moved to Moscow from Daghestan, where he worked as a reporter for the Russia”s Channel One television. The men reportedly tortured Shurpayev before killing him during the night of March 20-21 and stole some 100,000 rubles ($4,260) from him. Later, Tajik police arrested a third suspect in the killing, Muhiddinov”s brother.
Homidov said that on completion of the preliminary investigation, formal charges had been brought against Masrurjon Yatimov, 24, and Najmiddin Muhiddinov, 20, under the provisions of three articles of the Penal Code of Tajikistan – Article 104, Part 2 (murder), Article 249 (robbery) and Article 255 (deliberate property destruction or damage)
