(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 23 June 1999 CPJ press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 20 April, 31 March and 30 March 1999** Kidnappers release ITAR-TASS correspondent in Chechnya New York, N.Y., June 23, 1999 – A Chechen correspondent for the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency abducted by unknown assailants nearly three months ago was […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 23 June 1999 CPJ press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 20 April, 31 March and 30 March 1999**
Kidnappers release ITAR-TASS correspondent in Chechnya
New York, N.Y., June 23, 1999 – A Chechen correspondent for the Russian
ITAR-TASS news agency abducted by unknown assailants nearly three months ago
was freed by his kidnappers on June 19 in Grozny, CPJ learned today. Family
members reported that 38-year-old Said Isayev was released in good condition
and without any payment of ransom. They provided no further details about
his release.
Isayev, the lone ITAR-TASS correspondent in the republic, was kidnapped by
unidentified gunmen who broke into his Grozny flat on the night of March 28.
His computer and some video equipment were also reported missing from his
apartment after his abduction.
ITAR-TASS chief Vitaliy Ignatenko appealed to Chechen President Aslan
Maskhadov to help secure his release. The day after Isayev’s abduction, the
Moscow ITAR-TASS offices received a telephone call from unidentified men who
claimed they were calling from Chechnya, warning that the office was mined.
Police searched the premises and found no explosives.
Isayev joined ITAR-TASS as a free-lance correspondent in Chechnya in 1996.
Only days before his kidnapping, Isayev was promoted to a staff position. He
is known for his balanced and detailed coverage of the political situation
in the volatile republic.
Since a wave of kidnappings of foreigners – including 21 journalists in
1997 – chiefly for ransom, few international journalists have ventured into
Chechnya. Although all the journalists were eventually freed, their
kidnappers have not been apprehended nor prosecuted by authorities in the
troubled breakaway region. In the most publicized case, kidnappers released
Yelena Masyuk, a correspondent for the independent Russian television
channel NTV, in August 1997 after 100
days in captivity, only after her employers paid $2 million in ransom.
CPJ has learned that at least one of Masyuk’s suspected kidnappers, a
24-year-old veteran of the Chechen conflict, remains free and lives openly
in Grozny.
