07.08.2006, 11:44 3148

Reporters Without Borders urges Kazakh authorities to conduct investigation of France citizen murder

Almaty. August 7. Kazakhstan Today - International press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders calls Kazakhstan authorities to conduct careful investigation of criminal case of the murder of French journalist Gregoire de Bourgues, the agency reports.

"We urge the authorities to do all they can to investigate this murder and we hope the French government will follow the investigation very closely," the worldwide press freedom organization said. "We express our sympathy with his family and his employers."

Gregoire de Bourgues arrived in Kazakhstan on April 22 as the adviser of the editor in Athenian company SML Strategic Media. The journalist arrived for three months to prepare promotional material for the American magazine on foreign policy. In the day of murder he was due to leave for Greece.

As it was informed earlier, on August 2 in Almalinsk region in Almaty in his apartment located along Shevchenko Street, the body of the French citizen was found with traces of violent death.

Three armed men, two of them wearing masks, broke into the house of De Bourgues', tied him and began to demand money. The citizen of France was killed with special cruelty. Traces of tortures, knife stabs and rubber bullet were found on the body of the journalist, his face was broken, and there were traces of rope on his neck, hands and legs. The bullet also made a hole in the ceiling.

Investigation of the crime has been taken under personal control of the Internal Minister of Kazakhstan Baurzhan Mukhamedzhanov who held before the murder the meeting with employees of the Department of Internal Affairs in Almaty where he informed of the increase in quantity of grave crimes. B. Muhamedzhanov noted that growth of grave crimes has reached 17.7 %.

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