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July 28, 2000
MOSCOW (AP) - The number of contract killings committed in Russia so far this year is slightly down from the same period in 1999, but police still fail to solve most of them, a police official said Thursday. So far this year, police have reported 249 hired killings, 49 of which have been solved, said Lt. Gen. Vyacheslav Trubnikov, head of the Interior Ministry's criminal investigation department. During the same period in 1999, 289 contract killings were reported but only 11 were resolved, he said. According to Trubnikov, the data on cases solved was misleading. He said that police had actually made progress on far more killings. "I don't think you should rely too much on statistics," Trubnikov said. "The statistics concern only the cases that have gone through court." He said in some cases, police had obtained convictions for the hired killer, but not the person who ordered the killing. Only cases where both are caught are counted as solved, he said. Contract killings have become widespread in Russia in recent years, with politicians, regional prosecutors, journalists and businessmen among the victims. Typically, they are a way of settling a political or economic dispute. On Tuesday, the chief prosecutor of the oil-rich province of Khanty-Mansiisk was shot to death in his apartment building. The head of an independent radio station was shot and killed by an unknown attacker in his apartment stairwell Wednesday. Trubnikov said work was continuing on both cases but refused to comment in detail about the investigations. |