Witchy Woman

"One of Russia's top human rights lawyers was assassinated in the centre of Moscow yesterday in a killing apparently linked to his work defending opponents of the pro-Kremlin government in Chechnya.
Stanislav Markelov, 34, was shot in the head by a man using a pistol with a silencer in the middle of the afternoon on a busy Moscow street. Markelov worked as a lawyer for Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper whose special correspondent Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow in 2006. The paper's co-owner Alexander Lebedev last night said Markelov had dealt with Politkovskaya's case.
Before escaping, his killer also shot Anastasia Barburova, a 25-year-old trainee journalist also employed by Novaya Gazeta. She had been walking with the lawyer to the metro when the killer, who wore military fatigues, opened fire. Barburova died last night in hospital.
Witnesses said she tried to chase the assassin, who turned and shot her in the head. Lebedev said the newspaper had grown concerned for the safety of its staff on Saturday after it published an article about Chechen execution squads roaming around Moscow. Several staff were put under protection, he added.
Markelov was one of Russia's most prominent human rights advocates. As well as his work for Novaya Gazeta, he represented the family of an 18-year-old Chechen woman who was murdered and raped in 2000 by a drunken Russian army colonel. The case was one of the most notorious to arise out of the Kremlin's two savage Chechen wars.
Col Yuri Budanov snatched Kheda Kungayeva from her father's house during a late-night raid in 2000, killed her inside his tent, and then ordered his subordinates to secretly bury the body. He was convicted of murder in 2003, despite claiming he had temporarily gone insane and had mistaken her for a sniper.
Budanov was released from prison last week, 18 months early. The case had prompted outrage in Chechnya, and news of his release sparked protests across the republic. Hours before he was murdered yesterday, Markelov had said he planned to appeal Budanov's release. Human rights activists yesterday said they were appalled by Markelov's killing, which they compared to the murder of Politkovskaya. "We don't know who killed him. But we know he was killed for doing his job, without a shadow of a doubt," said Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch in Moscow. "He was one of those people prepared to risk his life for the cause. He was funny, outrageous and sometimes quite obnoxious. He was a colleague and friend. We travelled to Chechnya together. He was always telling jokes, including the most obscene ones. I can't believe he's gone." She went on: "His murder is similar [in scale] to Politkovskaya's. He is the latest in a long line of strong critics of the state who have got killed. In each case the killers are never caught. We are just appalled that this has happened.' The lawyer was murdered outside a historic palace in upmarket Prechistenka Street.
Witnesses at the scene said there was no sound of gunshots. "It was 3pm. A passerby came in to call for an ambulance. She said a man and a woman were lying on the ground," Natalya Ivanova, who works in the chemist's opposite, said, adding: "The killing was outrageous. It was in broad daylight in a street full of people."
Russia's prosecutor general Yuri Chaika announced he was taking personal charge of the investigation. The assassin was described as of Slavic appearance, 5ft 11in tall and wearing a baseball cap.
Relatives of the dead Chechen woman yesterday said Markelov had received threats before his assassination.
"He said: 'I am being sent text messages, people are calling. They are saying they will kill me unless I stop the Budanov affair,'" her father, Visa Kungayev, told Ekho Moskvy radio. Last night sources suggested that the killers responsible for Poltikovskaya's murder may have been involved in yesterday's. Chechnya's president Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russia's prime minister Vladimir Putin, has been accused of involvement in Politkovskaya's death, one of several such charges he denies.
As well as the Budanov case, Markelov represented the family of a Chechen man who vanished last August. Mokhmadsalakh Masaev was abducted in Chechnya several weeks after giving an interview to Novaya Gazeta, in which he said he had been kept and tortured in a prison in Kadyrov's home village for four months.
Another critic of Chechnya's president, 27-year-old Umar Israilov, was shot dead in Vienna last week. Israilov had filed a complaint to the European court of human rights in 2006, alleging that Kadyrov had personally tortured him.
According to last week's New York Times, another Chechen, Artur Kurmakayev, claimed Kadyrov had a death list of 300 Chechens living abroad."