Russian Judge Shot to Death at Home in Possible Contract Hit Over His Work
A Russian judge was shot to death today on the stairwell of his Moscow apartment in what authorities are saying was a killing apparently linked to his work on the bench.
Moscow City Court Judge Eduard Chuvashov, 47, had just last week finished imposing 10- to 20-year sentences on the Ryno Gang, whose teenage members were convicted of randomly attacking foreign immigrants on the street, according to the New York Times and Reuters.
Last year he sentenced members of the White Wolves skinhead group, who were convicted of 11 murders, and reportedly received death threats. Police said members of the group filmed brutal killings on cell phones and uploaded them to nationalist websites.
An Interior Ministry in Moscow told the newspaper that Chuvashov, who was shot in the head and chest, was apparently the target of a contract hit, and a Civil Rights Watch spokeswoman tells the news agency that judges, lawyers and journalists are now being targeted by neo-nationalists in Russia.
President Dmitry Medvedev promised that “everything will be done so that the organizers and perpetrators of this cynical murder be found and punished,” Reuters reports, citing the Interfax news agency.
Surveillance footage at the apartment building shows an individual leaving who appears to be a male of about 30, reports the Associated Press. It says the killer used a silencer and left no shells.
Additional coverage:
London Times: “Top Russian judge Eduard Chuvashov ‘assassinated in revenge attack’”
