The Associated Press
July 19, 2004, Monday, BC cycle

Employee of Armenian magazine killed in Moscow

MOSCOW

An Armenian magazine employee died after being stabbed and beaten in
Moscow, the magazine’s chief said Monday.

The discovery of Pail Peloyan’s body on Saturday came eight days
after the killing of American Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes
magazine’s Russian edition, and raised additional concerns about
journalists’ safety in Russia.

The magazine for which Peloyan worked was much lower-visibility than
Forbes and covered topics less controversial than Klebnikov’s
reporting on Russia’s often-violent business sphere.

The Russian-language magazine, Armyanskii Pereulok (Armenian Lane),
focused on Armenian historical, cultural and religious issues, editor
Valentin Filoyan said. Peloyan was chief administrator for the
magazine and had written several articles, he said. The magazine’s
last issue appeared at the beginning of 2003.

Asked whether he believed the 37-year-old Peloyan’s death was
connected to the magazine’s work, Filoyan said, “I don’t think so.”
No other motive was known.

Peloyan’s body was found early Saturday on the edge of the expressway
that circles Moscow, near a pedestrian overpass, Russian news reports
said.

Filoyan said money and documents including Peloyan’s passport were
found on the body, an apparent indication that robbery was not the
motive.

Russia was rated by the Committee to Protect Journalists as one of
the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for journalists, with a
number of killings and beatings reported in recent years.

Klebnikov reportedly had been looking into the 1995 killing of a
prominent TV journalist and was interested in doing a series of
articles about journalist murders.