Melamedov: Dagestan journalists Shurpaev and Abashilov were on the "black list"

According to Andrei Melamedov, former editor-in-chief of the private Dagestan newspaper "Nastoyascheye Vremya" (Present Time), the surnames of journalists Ilyas Shurpaev and Gaji Abashilov, who were murdered on Friday, were on the list of persons prohibited to mentioning.

"Indeed, Rizvan Rizvanov, Director General of the newspaper, gave me a list of the persons, whose names he categorically didn't wish to see in his newspaper. Both Ilyas Shurpaev and Gaji Abashilov were on the list," Mr Melamedov said.

According to his version, the "black list" included other well-known journalists and public figures of Dagestan. The former editor-in-chief could not name the reason of such requirement, having added that he had not obeyed to it, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

It is necessary to note here that a couple of hours before his death Ilyas Shurpaev gave comments on this fact in his Internet diary, expressing his surprise with being enlisted there.

"In this newspaper, apart from notes about my travels, where I never touch on political situation in Zimbabwe, but just describe where I went, that I ate also whom I saw, I didn't publish anything seditious," the journalist wrote in his blog in the evening on March 20.

The Union of Journalists of Russia has already demanded to hold the most careful investigation into the murders of Abashilov and Shurpaev.

In the opinion of the Union, we can speak about "a new targeted attack on mass media in the country, where during the latest years dozens of journalists have been killed, and none of the assassins ever convicted."