Agence France Presse — English
July 17, 2004 Saturday 6:12 AM Eastern Time

Local journalist found dead in Moscow

MOSCOW, July 17

The editor of a Moscow arts magazine has been found stabbed to death,
police said Saturday.

“The body of journalist Pail Peloyan with knife wounds to his chest
and bruises on his face was found on Saturday at 7:00 am (0300 GMT),”
the RIA Novosti news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

The body was found lying on the side of the MKAD highway that
encircles the Russian capital, police said.

Peloyan was the editor of Armyanski Pereulok (Armenian Lane), a
Russian-language magazine specializing in literature and arts. It was
not clear whether the killing had any connection with his work.

On July 9, Paul Klebnikov, a US citizen and editor of the Russian
Forbes magazine, was shot to death as he left his office in northern
Moscow.

Following the murder, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists
called on President Vladimir Putin to move against the “climate of
lawlessness” which has seen 15 journalists killed in Russia during
the past four years.

“Klebnikov is the 15th journalist killed in connection with his work
during your tenure,” CPJ said in a statement.

“No one has been brought to justice in any of the slayings, creating
a sense of impunity that endangers all journalists and undermines
your democracy,” the CPJ said.

The failure to solve any of the journalists’ murders over the past
four years is “a testament to the ongoing lawlessness in Russia and
your failure to reform the country’s weak and politicized criminal
justice system.”