Czech man found dead in Russia's Dagestan region

August 11, 2003 Posted: 14:49 Moscow time (10:49 GMT) 

MAKHACHKALA - The body of a Czech man who had been shot and knifed was found by a river in southern Russia's Dagestan region, police said Monday.

The body, which had knife and gunshot wounds, was found Friday on a riverbank in a mountainous Gumbet district of Dagestan, not far from Chechnya, said regional Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Musayev.

A spokesman for the Czech Embassy in Moscow, Jan Tomasek, said Dagestan's Interior Ministry told consular officials the man's name was Martin Kraus and that he was registered with local officials in
Dagestan as a businessman.

Musayev said Kraus was born in 1973 and was from Prague. He said he  had been detained briefly in Dagestan on Aug. 5 and had told authorities at the time that he was a businessman.

Earlier Monday, the regional Interior Ministry had said Kraus was a journalist who was registered to work in Chechnya. The office of President Vladimir Putin's top aide on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said the man named in media reports did not have the accreditation required to enter Chechnya as a journalist.

Musayev said the Czech man's body was found Friday, and that two suspects had been detained on charges of robbery, assault and murder.

Dagestan is plagued by violence both related and unrelated to the fighting in Chechnya, where the second war between Russian forces and separatists in a decade is nearly four years old.

A Dutch aid worker, Arjan Erkel, was abducted by gunmen in Dagestan a year ago and has not been released.

11 August 2003 10:10

Dagestan ministry confirms murdered Czech robbery victim Moscow/Makhachkala,

11 August: The Czech citizen whose body was discovered on 8 August beside the Andiyskoye Koysu river in the Russian republic of Dagestan was in the country as a private individual, and was murdered in a robbery, Abdul Musayev of the Dagestan Interior Ministry told CTK today.

Martin Kraus, 30, was shot by two local criminals, both of whom have been arrested and have admitted to the crime, Musayev said. He added that Kraus was definitely not visiting in any journalistic capacity.  He did not carry any press badge, and had arrived in Russia with only a three-month tourist visa, he added. Shortly before his death, Kraus had been detained by police in Dagestan for not having the registration mandatory for a stay in the autonomous region of Russia.

At the time, Musayev said, he stated that he was a dealer in folk art, and was hoping to reach South Ossetia by way of Chechnya. Kraus was travelling through Russia in his personal car, a Volkswagen with Czech number plates. His car and his personal effects were found in the possession of the two men arrested for his murder. Kraus had previously left a message on the answering machine of the Moscow office of CTK that he had information "about the case of an unjustly convicted person in Moscow". His cell phone, however, repeatedly stated that it was temporarily disconnected.

13:55 August 11, 2003

Czech murdered in Dagestan was not a journalist

According to the recent data, a Czech citizen, whose murder had been reported by the Daghestani Interior Ministry was not a journalist. The murdered Czech citizen was an engineer. In his application for
permission to visit Daghestan he wrote: "sale and resale of works of arts and crafts," official spokesman for the Daghestani Interior  Ministry reported. It was reported earlier that Czech journalist Kraus Martin aged 30 was on his way to Chechnya through adjoining Daghestan. His body was found on the bank of a river in the western region of Daghestan on August 8. Two locals have already been detained on suspicion of the murder. They had Kraus Martin's Volkswagen as well as his personal belongings. The detainees are already giving evidence, saying that they had murdered the Czech to  ob him, the spokesman for the Daghestani Interior Ministry said. 

//RIA-Novosti//
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10:06  August 11, 2003       

Czech journalist killed in Dagestan      

The body of Czech journalist Kraus Martin was found on Friday evening in the Gumbetovsky district of the Caucasus republic of Dagestan. A duty officer of the Dagestani Interior Ministry reported on Monday that the journalist had been on his way to Chechnya with a professional mission. According to preliminary information, he died  of knife and gun wounds. Investigation into the murder has started already. A criminal case has been instigated.

//ITAR-TASS

10:44  August 12, 2003       

2 suspected killers of Czech journalist detained in Dagestan

Two people, aged 25 and 21 have been detained in Dagestan over suspition of murdering the 30-year-old Czech journalist Kraus Martin.  The police found out that the suspects had got hold of the killed man's Volkswagen car and other personal belongings.   The body of the journalist was found on Friday on the bank of the river in the village Chirkata, Gumbet district of the republic, but was identified later, reported the Dagestan Interior Ministry. The traces of knife and bullet wounds were found on the body. Experts say that the body was in the water for at least two days.

//RIA-Novosti//