Magomed Yakhyаvich Yevloyev (Магомед Яхьявич Евлоев; 22 November 1971 – 31 August 2008) was a Russian journalist, lawyer, and businessman, and the owner of the news website Ingushetiya.ru, known for being highly critical of Murat Zyazikov, the President of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia locating in the North Caucasus region.
Originally there was no intention to make an opposition website; Yevloyev planned to host a neutral collection of materials on the history and culture of the Ingush people, without favoring any particular point of view.
He was one of the organizers of the I did not vote campaign, intended to expose mass voter fraud in Ingushetia during the 2008 Russian presidential election.
[2] In the beginning of 2008, the office of the Ingushetia public procurator initiated hearings in Kuntsevo Court, demanding that access to the site Ingushetia.ru be restricted.
In May 2008, the court issued an injunction demanding that Russian providers "limit access to the site by filtering its IP addresses".
[3][4][5] Weeks before his killing, it was rumoured that Magomed knew his life was in danger and he had planned on seeking political asylum in a European Union country.
[9] In July 2008, Human Rights Watch documented dozens of arbitrary detentions, disappearances, acts of torture, and extrajudicial executions in Ingushetia.
[10] The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe denounced Yevloyev's killing as an "assassination" aimed at cracking down on dissent in Ingushetia.
The organizer of the protest rally, Magomed Khazibiyev, declared that the Ingush opposition would demand independence, appealing to Russia's recognition of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia as precedent.
Early on 2 September, police dispersed a sleeping crowd of around 50 men who remained in the main square in Nazran, Ingushetia's capital city.
Another criminal case for his illegal detention (according to the investigators, police did not have the right to arrest him when they did) was opened in February 2009,[13] but withdrawn in March 2009.