Police In Norway Put Chechen Family Under Protection

30.01.2009 Editor

January 22, GROZNY — Visa Kungayev, the father of the girl murdered by Russian Colonel Yury Budanov in 2000, told RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service that the Norwegian police have placed his family under special protection.

Kungayev says he was summoned to a local police precinct on January 20 to discuss the assassination the day before of Stanislav Markelov, the Kungayev family’s lawyer. Kungayev also discussed with police his family’s safety and security in Norway.

Kungayev said that he has no doubt that “Budanov and his gang” were behind Markelov’s murder in broad daylight on the street in central Moscow. Budanov was released on parole early last week from a 10-year prison sentence.

Editor

The “Free Eurasia” project is an independent media platform based in Prague, with an ambitious mission to provide the regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus with high-quality, objective and timely information in their national languages. We unite the expertise of editors and journalists working in Tajik, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Circassian, Avar and Russian to break the monopoly of state-run Russian-language media and amplify the voices of local communities. Direction Our work focuses on comprehensive coverage of social, political, economic and cultural developments in Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as the issues facing diasporas in Russia, Turkey, China and other countries. We produce news, analytical articles, video reports, podcasts, interviews and journalistic investigations. Special attention is paid to topics rarely addressed by state media: human rights violations, corruption, ethnic and cultural identity, migration and international relations. We strive to engage audiences of all ages, with a particular emphasis on young people and residents of remote regions, offering them digital content in their native languages. Goal Our main goal is to promote the development and sustainability of independent media in Central Asia and the Caucasus. We aim to strengthen the region’s informational sovereignty by expanding access to truthful sources and raising media literacy. At the same time, we support the development of national languages as key elements of identity and cultural heritage, encouraging public discussion and engagement. The project seeks to become a catalyst for building a strong civil society and defending democratic values, helping to train new professional journalists and fostering international cooperation.

Editor

You May Also Like

Leave a Reply Cancel reply