Adam Schiff: “The next journalist that I will highlight this evening is Eduard Markevich, and Eduard's picture appears in the upper…”

“The next journalist that I will highlight this evening is Eduard Markevich, and Eduard's picture appears in the upper left-hand corner. Mr. Markevich was the 29-year-old editor and publisher of Novy Reft, the local newspaper in the town of Reftinsky, Sverdlovsk Region. He was found dead, shot in the back. Novy Reft often criticized local officials, and Eduard's colleagues told the ITAR-TASS news service that he had received threatening telephone calls prior to the attack. This was not the first attack on Eduard, the Region-Inform news agency reported. In 1998, two unknown assailants broke into his apartment and severely beat him in front of his pregnant wife. They were never caught. In 1999, Eduard was illegally detained for 10 days after local prosecutor's office charged him with defamation over a Novy Reft article questioning the propriety of a lucrative government contract that gave a former deputy prosecutor the exclusive right to represent the Reftinsky administration in court. In May 2001, federal prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov reprimanded the local prosecutor for violating Eduard's constitutional rights. Police investigated, or launched an investigation into Eduard's murder. Now 6 years after the journalist's death.”