Top anti-racism judge shot dead in Moscow

[Echo In Light]

A top judge from Moscow's city court who had tried high-profile racist murder cases was shot dead Monday as he left his apartment in the Russian capital, investigators said.

"Unknown assailants shot the federal judge of the Moscow city court, Eduard Chuvashov, on the third-floor landing in the first entrance of building 24 on Strelbishchensky Street," the investigative committee said in a statement. "He died on the spot from gunshot wounds to the head and chest. The attackers fled the scene."

Investigators were working at the crime scene and hunting for the man who pulled the trigger in the apparent contract-style killing, the committee said. The crime was likely to have been related to Chuvashov's work, it added.

His court dealt with "difficult criminal cases", a spokeswoman for Moscow's court, Anna Usacheva, said on the Echo of Moscow radio.

"To the court and colleagues... He was kindhearted, compassionate man and the highest of professionals," she said, mourning Chuvashov's death. The 47-year-old judge had presided over at least two cases of hate crimes perpetrated by ultra-nationalist groups last year and afterwards threats against him were posted on several radical websites, said Galina Kozhevnikova of the Sova Centre, a rights group that tracks racist crimes.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Top_anti_racism_judge_shot_dead_in__04122010.html

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