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Alert

Media director shot to death

(GDF/IFEX) - 11 May 2010 - Shamil Aliyev, founder and head manager of Priboi and Vatan radio stations and director of the TNT-Makhachkala television network, was recently shot and killed in broad daylight in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala. His car came under submachine-gun fire. The unidentified assailants quickly disappeared from the scene of the crime, leaving Aliyev and his bodyguard Saidmagomed Ubaidullayev dead and driver Ramazan Magomedov wounded. An attempt to intercept the attackers yielded no results.

The police instituted criminal proceedings under Article 105 ("Homicide involving the use of firearms") and Article 222 ("Unlawful keeping and carrying of firearms") of the RF Penal Code, reported the RIA-Dagestan news agency, based on information from the press service of the Investigating Committee under the republican prosecutor's office.

So far, two possible explanations for the motive are being considered: Aliyev may have been killed either in connection with his business activities or for being a staunch opponent of Wahhabism. According to "Kommersant Daily", Aliyev was a follower of "traditional" Islam and his radio and TV broadcasts were anti-Wahhabist in their tone. Specifically, TNT showed a documentary, "Wahhabism Pure and Simple", one of whose authors, Abdullah Alishayev, was shot and killed in a Makhachkala suburb on 2 September 2008. The killers have not been identified.