29 June 2009
Vyacheslav Yaroshenko
Beating
Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, editor-in-chief of the Rostov-on-Don newspaper Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, succumbed to head injuries suffered in an April attack, according to press reports.
Yaroshenko was found unconscious with a head wound in the entrance of his apartment building early on the morning of April 30. He was hospitalized with skull and brain trauma, underwent surgery, and spent five days in a coma, his deputy, Sergei Sleptsov, told CPJ at the time.
Sleptsov told Russian news outlets today that Yaroshenko's condition had taken a turn for the worse in the past few days; doctors operated again today, but the editor did not survive. Sleptsov told press outlets that Rostov police did not investigate what happened to Yaroshenko in April, but said they had immediately ruled out criminality.
Sleptsov said he believes Yaroshenko was attacked in retaliation for his newspaper's work. Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, an independent paper whose title translates as "Corruption and Crime," has reported on corruption allegations involving Rostov law enforcement agencies. "I don't have even the smallest doubt," Sleptsov told the opposition news Web site Kasparov. "Our newspaper was published on eight pages; seven of them were allotted to corruption in the law enforcement structures."
In the weeks before the incident, Korruptsiya i Prestupnost had published a number of articles on alleged corruption in the Rostov regional government, police, and the prosecutor's office. Sleptsov confirmed today that the paper is carrying out its own investigation into the editor's death.
