A human-rights lawyer who unsuccessfully fought the early release of a Russian colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen woman was shot dead on a Moscow street today.
A journalist also was wounded in the attack, according to the deputy editor of a Moscow newspaper.
Stanislav Markelov acted for the family of 18-year-old Elza Kungayeva, whose murder in 2000 became a symbol of human rights abuses in the war-ravaged region.
Mr Markelov, 34, had led legal attempts to block the early release of Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov, who was convicted of her murder.
Chechnya was hit by protests last month when a court ruled Budanov should be released. Mr Markelov's body was found with several gunshot wounds on one of Moscow's main streets, prosecutors said.
He had just given a briefing to reporters.
"The dead lawyer is Stanislav Markelov. His identity papers were found so there is no further doubt about his identity," said a spokeswoman for the Moscow investigative unit of the Prosecutor-General's office.
Kungayeva's murder in 2000 provoked a storm of protest in Chechnya. Her family said she had been raped and murdered in a drunken rampage by Russian troops.
Budanov was arrested in 2000, charged with her murder and later jailed for 10 years, the highest-ranking Russian officer to be imprisoned for war crimes in Chechnya.
Budanov was freed early last Thursday.
Kungayeva's father told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that Merkelov had received death threats on his mobile phone over recent days.
"He said: 'I am being sent text messages, people are calling. They are saying that they will kill me unless I stop the Budanov affair,'" Visa Kungayev told the station.
He said Markelov had intended to file a protest in the Supreme Court today against Budanov's release.
A girl at the scene where Markelov was shot also received a gunshot wound to the head and was rushed to hospital, prosecutors said.
The deputy editor of Russia's Novaya Gazetasaid the girl was a trainee at the newspaper. Sergei Sokolov named her as Anastasia Baburova and said she was seriously wounded.
Prosecutors said a murder investigation had been launched.
"This is a horrible, frightening crime," said Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch. She compared it to the 2006 slaying of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya - a client of Markelov's who also fought rights abuses in Chechnya and around Russia.
Reuters