Kyrgyz journalist brutally murdered: police

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AFP) - – The editor of a newspaper that frequently criticised the secret police in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan has died after a savage attack in which he was stabbed more than a dozen times, police said Thursday.

The body of Seyitbek Murataliyev, editor of the independent weekly Zhylan, was found by police early Wednesday morning in a communal area of his apartment building in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

"On November 4, 2009 law enforcement bodies acted on information they received about a murder. The brigade which arrived at the scene discovered the body of the journalist," an interior ministry spokesman told AFP.

"The editor of the newspaper was killed in his own home. Forensic scientists have counted 13 stab wounds on the body of the deceased," he added.

Zhylan is frequently critical of the government of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, writing primarily about police corruption and the country's powerful but secretive security services.

Police denied that Murataliyev's murder was connected with his work and said that preliminary information suggested that he had been murdered in a "fit of passion" by a female acquaintance.

A police spokesman said that a 27-year-old woman had confessed to the murder.

The unnamed suspect reportedly told police that she killed Murataliyev after the 58-year-old journalist raped her at knife-point during a visit to his home to win his help in publicising the case of her imprisoned husband.

Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished Central Asian state nestled in a spur of China's Tien Shan Mountains, has long been considered the region's most politically unstable country.

Bakiyev, who came to power in 2005 on the back of street protests dubbed "The Tulip Revolution", had promised to tackle the country's endemic corruption but has been accused by critics of fostering increasing authoritarianism.

The International Press Institute, a media rights group, said Murataliyev's killing was part of an emerging trend of press intimidation in the former Soviet state.

"It is unacceptable that journalists in Kyrgyzstan continue to be brutally beaten and killed," said IPI Deputy Director Alison Bethel McKenzie.

"Equally unacceptable is the apparent lethargy of the authorities when it comes to finding and prosecuting the perpetrators," she added.

Murataliyev is the second journalist to be murdered in Kyrgyzstan this year, while at least nine other reporters have been violently attacked.

Independent journalist Almaz Tashiev was beaten to death by an off-duty police officer in July, although interior ministry officials denied the case was connected with his work.

In one of the worst incidents Syrgak Abdyldaev, a reporter for opposition newspaper Reporter-Bishkek, survived an attack in which he was beaten and stabbed more than 30 times by a group of unknown assailants.