He was posthumously awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Journalism as an Act. After death, he will be named after the foundation and the journalism prize. Admirers call it the conscience of the people and the mouthpiece of freedom of speech, and the official authorities will see him as the instigator of ethnic hatred and an accomplice of Wahhabis. During his lifetime, the Russian journalist Khadzhimurad Kamalov was an odious figure, and after death, passions boil around his personality.
Murder
On December 16, 2011, overwhelming news was heard in all the mass media of Dagestan: on the night of December 15, on the office of Gadzhiev, Makhachkala, the founder of the weekly newspaper Chernovik and the director of Freedom of Speech OJSC were seriously wounded. Khadzhimurad Kamalov was shot from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Of the 14 bullets fired, 6 hit the journalist, one in the throat, and it was she who became fatal. The seriously injured Kamalov died in an ambulance.
According to the official version, there were several attackers. At twelve o'clock in the morning the journalist left the office of the newspaper to accompany his guest, and when he returned, he was attacked. Unknown man in a black mask shot. After the assassination, the murderers fled in two cars: the black Lada Priore and the VAZ 2109. Behind the dry reports was the tragedy of Dagestan.
East is a delicate matter
The Republic of Dagestan, being part of Russia, has its own national flavor, which catches the eye of every visitor. To begin with, the atmosphere of tension is felt immediately. Travelers who transit through Dagestan to Azerbaijan feel the big difference between the two territories. In Azerbaijan, the people are more relaxed, the feeling of anxiety does not haunt.
The Republic of Dagestan is divided into two camps. One side is the Muslim underground. They are called “forest” by the people, because they are deployed in the forests, and the official authorities consider them militants, Wahhabis. The Wahhabis themselves call themselves Salafists and consider them freedom fighters of Dagestan. They live according to Sharia and they have their own Sharia court, which judges secular power according to the laws of Islam, and they do not recognize other courts.
The other side, which is in constant confrontation with the "forest", is the official Dagestan: power and security forces. We season it all with features of a national character: a Caucasian djigit is a real man, then everything falls into place. The constant armed skirmishes between the warring parties are the prose of the life of the republic. Being in a bipolar world, everyone must choose whose side he is on.
Human soul engineer
In a republic like Dagestan, family ties, clan affiliation determine which side you have to choose - you will not go against the family. The killed Khadzhimurad Kamalov chose the side of the Muslim underground. The sting of his pen was aimed solely at identifying shortcomings in the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, prosecutors and officials. Of course, you can call the journalist a Wahhabi, because he sympathizes with the Islamic underground, and not take his attacks seriously.
But this was far from the case. In Dagestan, corruption, taking into account national characteristics, has reached its peak. Bribes and theft of budget funds were in the millions. People saw this, and the newspaper "Draft" vividly exposed the corrupt officials in power. Therefore, Khadzhimurad Magomedovich Kamalov was a respected and popular person in Dagestan. His brainchild - the weekly newspaper "Draft", published in a circulation of 15, 000 copies, was extremely popular. Kamalov personified the principle of freedom of speech in Dagestan. His friend, journalist Orkhan Jemal, writes that Khadzhimurad created a newspaper - honest, moral and frostbitten fearless.
Journalistic clan
The weekly "Draft" was released for the first time in August 2003. But for a long time he did not exist. Due to bankruptcy, Kamalov was forced to dissolve the collective and close the newspaper. However, after a few months, the newspaper reopened. Here we must remember where Hadzhimurad Magomedovich came from. He was born on February 11, 1965 in the village of Sogratl, Gunibsky district.
Many Sogratlintsy worked in various print media. The head of the Union of Journalists of Dagestan and the editor-in-chief of the Hakikat newspaper Ali Kamalov was uncle Khadzhimurad. The owner of the first independent newspaper, Novoye Delo, Akhmed Chililov, the chief editor of the Youth of Dagestan newspaper, Haji Abashilov, and after him, his son Shamil Abashilov, the wife of the chief editor of Dagestanskaya Pravda, were all fellow villagers. And thanks to their support and patronage, Khadzhimurad Kamalov founded his newspaper, but when it went bankrupt, difficulties began in the family.
Phoenix Rebirth
After a short time, new patrons were found, thanks to which the opposition newspaper began to appear again. They became influential representatives of the Dagestan business, the Magomedov brothers ("Smolensky brothers").
Newspaper articles were mainly the result of investigative journalism. Most of all went to the police and prosecutors. They were accused of illegal religious arrests, torture of detainees and prisoners, rape of women and bribery.
Slanderous articles with the names of senior officials, indicating the exact amounts of bribes and links to articles of the law that were violated, could not leave indifferent the people or officials.
Warnings
Authorities tried to pacify Khadzhimurad Kamalov. Letters were repeatedly sent to the editors demanding not to incite ethnic hatred. But this has not been done. In July 2008, criminal cases were opened against the editor-in-chief Nadira Isaeva and 4 employees. They were accused of calling for extremist activity and inciting hatred of law enforcement agencies. The reason was the article “Terrorists Number One”, which published a text-appeal of the head of the militants, Rappani Alilov, to the Dagestanis to join the ranks of the Islamic underground in order to fight officials who “get rich on the handouts of Moscow”.
On May 19, 2011, the court acquitted Nadir Isaev and her employees. And after 6 months, the founder of "Draft" Kamalov will be shot dead. The question immediately arose, who and for what killed Kamalov Khadzhimurad ?. Naturally, the first thing they thought: it was the authorities that dealt with the objectionable journalist. But not everything is so simple when the following biography facts pop up.
Conflicts and scandals
During his boisterous journalistic career, Kamalov crossed the road for many. He did not confine himself to accusations in the newspaper, he personally incriminated in crowds. As many said, Kamalov quarreled with everyone with whom he could. Naturally, many did not like him. Therefore, after the murder, the deputy prime minister of the republic, Shamil Isaev, was suspected. Khadzhimurad Kamalov and Shamil Isaev had long-standing friendship and hatred. They grew up in one village and before Kamalov became a follower of Islam, they were on good terms.
But if the whole of Dagestan is divided into two camps, then the inhabitants of the village of Sogratl also had to choose the side. Kamalov and Isaev were on opposite sides of the barricades.
There was a serious struggle for power in the village. It is very important who was at the helm. First, supporters of the "forest" brothers won, they occupied all key posts in the village. But over time, Shamil Isaev, having connected all his resources, began to gradually gain ground. Therefore, a massive information campaign began against Isaev. Especially in December, elections were to be held for the head of the Gunib region, where Isaev pushed his ally. Naturally, Kamalov strongly opposed such an election, and on the night of the murder Khadzhimurad Kamalov prepared another accusatory article on the candidate.
Stone of discord
In addition to an open confrontation with Shamil Isaev, the founder of “Draft” had a conflict with the former editor-in-chief of the newspaper Nadira Isaeva. In 2010, "Draft" received an award from the German Foundation. Bucerius and the Norwegian Freedom of Speech Foundation for criticizing the actions of law enforcement agencies during special operations. The amount of the award was 20 thousand euros. Then Nadira Isaeva was part of the newspaper, and all the financial documents that were sent to the contest were drawn up in her name. After that, due to disagreements, Isaev is dismissed from the newspaper, and the prize is transferred to her account. Kamalov demands that she transfer the money to the newspaper for further distribution among employees. But Isaeva does not agree, believing that the money needs to be transferred to charitable foundations, motivating that the Chernovik journalists are not in poverty.
In hot telephone exchanges, Khadzhimurad Kamalov clearly indicates to the former employee that it is not she who decides how to distribute the money. But Isaeva appeals to the fact that the prize was received for work under her supervision, therefore she has the right to take part in the fate of this money. The conflict went beyond local disassembly. Kamalov filed lawsuits. But in the end, he is killed in December, and this dispute is canceled. Nadira Isaeva never gave the money to the newspaper, but, according to her, she transferred it to charity funds. But many remained of the opinion that she spent the money on bribes to rescue her husband from prison. As if by itself, the version was born that Nadir Isaev is the customer of the murder. However, she did not find confirmation.
