DUSHANBE — Officials said Monday that two men from Tajikistan have admitted robbing and killing a Russian TV journalist, a death that had bolstered Russia's image as one of the most dangerous countries for reporters.
Ilyas Shurpayev, 32, a reporter for Russia's state-run TV network Channel One, was found dead March 21 in his rented Moscow apartment.
Tajik Interior Ministry spokesman Makhmadali Shafoatov said one of the two suspects, Masrudzhon Yatimov, claimed Shurpayev had offered him money nine days earlier to have sex.
"Shurpayev himself invited (Yatimov) to his house on March 12 and offered him money to have sexual relations," Shafoatov said.
During the visit, Yatimov learned the reporter had just received a large money transfer, and he and another man, Nadzhmiddin Mukhiddinov, then returned to Shupayev's apartment on March 21 to rob him, he said. After Shurpayev resisted, they ended up killing him, Shafoatov said.
The attackers set fire to Shurpayev's apartment and Russian police later found him with a belt around his neck and numerous stab wounds.
The two suspects "have already fully admitted their guilt in committing this crime," Shafoatov said.
Investigators took from the men Shurpayev's gold watch, his cell phone and $6,400 in cash, Shafoatov told reporters in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital.
Last week, Russian officials flew to Dushanbe as part of their investigation into the murder, and on Saturday, the Tajik Interior Ministry announced the arrest of the suspects.
It was unclear whether the two would be extradited to Russia.
Shurpayev was from the southern Russian province of Dagestan.
More than a dozen journalists have been slain in contract-style killings in Russia since 2000. Many appear to have been targeted because of their attempts to investigate alleged corruption.
Charges have rarely been filed, including in the 2006 slaying in Moscow of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative reporter who won acclaim for her reporting of atrocities against civilians in war-scarred Chechnya.
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