Iskandar Khatloni
Iskandar Khatloni (Tajik: Искандар Хатлонӣ; October 1954 – September 21, 2000) was a journalist from Tajikistan who worked for Radio Free Europe and was murdered in Moscow, Russia while covering the Second Chechen War.
Life
[edit ]In the 1980s at the onset of glasnost in the Soviet Union Khatloni began worked as a BBC correspondent.[1] In 1996, he became a correspondent for the Tajik language division of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe. In addition to his journalistic work, Khatloni was a distinguished poet and published four volumes of verse.[2]
Before his death, Khatloni had been assigned to Moscow to report on human rights abuses in Chechnya.[2]
Murder
[edit ]On the evening of 22 September 2000 Khatloni was attacked inside his Moscow apartment by an unknown, axe-wielding assailant. Khatloni was struck twice in the head and then stumbled onto the street and collapsed. He was later found by a passerby and taken to Moscow's Botkin Hospital, where he died that night of a serious head wound.[3]
Speculation surrounding Khatloni's murder has focused on his coverage of the war in Chechnya, a politically sensitive topic that brought great peril to Russian-based journalists covering the subject. Just the previous spring, Igor Domnikov of Novaya Gazeta had been murdered while covering abuses by the Russian armed forces in Chechnya.[2] Radio Free Europe's coverage of the Chechen conflict had caused the Russian Media Ministry to declare earlier in the year that the independent radio station was "hostile to our state."[3] Moscow police opened an investigation of Khatloni's murder, but no arrests were ever made in the case.[2] [4]
Khatloni was survived by his wife Kimmat and a daughter from a previous marriage. He was buried in his native Tajikistan.[2]
See also
[edit ]References
[edit ]- ^ "RFE/RL Journalist Slain in Moscow". Radio Free Europe. 2000. Archived from the original on 2008年02月17日. Retrieved 2008年03月10日.
- ^ a b c d e "Dine Decries Murder Of RFE/RL Journalist". Radio Free Europe. 2000. Archived from the original on 2008年02月17日. Retrieved 2008年03月10日.
- ^ a b "Journalist Murdered In Moscow". Committee to Protect Journalists. 2000. Retrieved 2008年03月10日.
- ^ "Journalist killed". International Press Institute. 2000. Archived from the original on 2007年10月22日. Retrieved 2008年03月10日.
External links
[edit ]- RFE/RL Correspondent Killed In Moscow (September 22, 2000)
- Assassinated Tajikistani journalists
- Tajikistani writers
- 20th-century Tajikistani poets
- Tajikistani male writers
- Soviet journalists
- 1954 births
- 2000 deaths
- Tajikistani people murdered abroad
- People murdered in Moscow
- Journalists killed in Russia
- 20th-century poets
- Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni
- 2000 murders in Russia