Dagestan MIA joins investigation of Ilyas Shurpaev's murder

The body of journalist Ilyas Shurpaev was found today in an apartment located in the Veshie Vody Street in Moscow. The neighbours saw a smoke coming out of the flat and called firemen who found the body inside.

The law enforcement bodies tend to think that the journalist himself let his murderers in, as shortly before the fire he called up the concierge asking to let in two young men, presumably natives of the Caucasus, whom he waited for in his flat.

By preliminary data of criminal experts, Shurpaev died of suffocation: his neck was squeezed with a waist belt. A criminal case was initiated under Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Murder").

The main version of Shurpaev's murder is thought to be in personal motives.

Ilyas Shurpaev has left his wife and a daughter of 5.

Today, Adilgirey Magomedtagirov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, gave an order to examine Ilyas Shurpaev's professional work in the Republic.

Ilyas Shurpaev's relatives, with whom the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent had a chance to talk, said that he had no enemies, and in his telephone calls from Moscow, where he had gone for work quite recently, he did not complain and was full of creative plans.

Ilyas Shurpaev started his journalistic career at the Dagestan TV Channel "M-5", from 2000, he worked as the own correspondent of the NTV North-Caucasian Bureau, in 2005, he took the position of the Channel One special correspondent, and on February 15 this year he arrived to work for the Central Bureau of Channel One.

Shurpaev was permanently publishing his articles in various Dagestan editions and grew highly popular for his travel notes from different countries and regions.

"We are shocked by the news about Shurpaev's murder," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Union of Journalists of Dagestan. "Shurpaev had never interfered with politics, he did not cover criminal problems and had always been an intelligent person."

Earlier, Shurpaev himself was bewildered by the fact that the founders of the Dagestan weekly "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present Time) had put his name on the list of persons, undesirable for mentioning in the paper.