(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the presidents of the European Union (EU) Council and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to urge the Russian authorities to step up their investigation into the disappearance of Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent Ali Astamirov. A journalist in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, Astamirov was kidnapped […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has called on the presidents of the European Union (EU) Council and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to urge the Russian authorities to step up their investigation into the disappearance of Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent Ali Astamirov. A journalist in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, Astamirov was kidnapped by armed men on 4 July 2003.
The appeal was made on the eve of the 4 October presidential elections in neighbouring Chechnya – on which Astamirov also reported – in letters to EU Council President Silvio Berlusconi and to OSCE President and Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
There has been no news of Astamirov since he was seized in Ingushetia’s capital, Nazran, by three armed men and driven off towards Chechnya. No ransom demand has been received by his family or by AFP and the kidnappers have not tried to contact them. Neither those in charge of the case in Moscow nor the Nazran Prosecutor’s Office have made any significant progress in their investigations. Astamirov’s family, who still believed he was alive three weeks after his disappearance, are now no longer sure of his fate.
In the months preceding his kidnapping, Astamirov had received anonymous threats and had changed his residence for safety reasons. These threats, as well as the lack of any ransom demand, suggest he was kidnapped because of his work as a journalist.
