Former Chechen Official Shot Dead In Moscow
Shepiyev's body at the site of the shooting in Moscow
February 05, 2009
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- A former deputy mayor of the capital of Chechnya was shot dead in Moscow on February 5, a police spokesman said.
The gunman shot Gilani Shepiyev at about 1 a.m. local time when he returned to his home in the west of Moscow.
Local news agencies said Shepiyev had served as deputy mayor of Grozny, capital of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, where Russian forces have fought separatists for years. He fled Grozny in 2006 after he was shot and injured in an assassination attempt.
Shepiyev is the third high-profile Chechen émigré to have been shot since late September, when a gunman killed Ruslan Yamadayev, a former deputy in the Russian parliament, in Moscow.
Yamadayev was one of three brothers in a family that had opposed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov has denied any involvement in Yamadayev's death.
In January, a former member of Kadyrov's bodyguard service was shot dead in Vienna. He had accused Kadyrov of torture, allegations Kadyrov denies.