Money reward announced for information about Maksharip Aushev's killers

Relatives and friends of the Ingush human rights activist Maksharip Aushev who was assassinated last October in Kabardino-Balkaria are conducting their investigation of the crime and have announced a reward for any information about his murderers. The sum of the reward makes 500,000 US dollars. In the opinion of Musa Pliev, advocate of the Aushevs, the investigation is inactive.

"The inquiry is conducted by the Chief Department of the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation for the South and North-Caucasian Federal Districts (SFD and NCFD); however, the investigation is inefficient. Within the five months that elapsed after the murder, the investigatory group has failed to conduct even the most necessary actions to solve the crime. Some examinations were conducted at the beginning, but then - nothing followed," Musa Pliev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his story, five months should have been enough for inspectors to define a circle of suspects and detain at least somebody involved in committing the murder. But nothing was done in this case. The incidents with blowing up the car with Maksharip's wife and kidnapping of his four relatives in St Petersburg have not been investigated either.

"In my opinion, the political motive in Maksharip Aushev's murder is obvious, but the investigation is stubborn in disregarding it; the investigatory group never had and doesn't have any desire to find the criminals. We've already challenged this group, but our petition was rejected," said the lawyer.

In the meantime, Maksharip Aushev's friends and colleagues have announced a reward of 500,000 US dollars for any information about the persons who committed the crime. "We also address the power agents who take their service in Ingushetia and adjacent regions with a request to provide information, if any, for the monetary reward," runs the statement published in the website "Ingushetiyaru.org" on March 15.

Confidentiality of potential informants is guaranteed by an oath on the Koran.

Mr Pliev notes that the public was given no information about the course of investigation. "The prosecutor's office refers to service secret. But even I, being the Aushevs' lawyer, know nothing about their real actions. I'm an expert in Russian law, which doesn't assume any remuneration paid by victim's relatives for information. But if Aushev's relatives and friends decided to raise money for the purpose, it means that they don't believe that law enforcers are able to solve the murder," he said.

Magomed Aushev, Maksharip's father, said that there are, however, certain suspects in the case; but they are not detained yet, thus, the announcement of the reward may help in any case. According to his story, the victim's family has no effective interaction with prosecutors.

One of them - inspector Victor Melnik, who is in charge of the inquiry, - was quite laconic. Earlier he told the press that "the investigation is on and the circumstances are studied." Now, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent could not contact him - his service telephones do not answer or are busy.