Anzor Umarov, who was killed in Austria, earlier refused from police protection. And it was a bad idea...

Elena Ivanova

In Vienna, the second suspect in the case of contract killings of a Chechen blogger Anzor Umarov was detained. Former police officer Anzor Umarov was known as a critic of the Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov. He lived in Austria since 2005 as a political emigrant. The blogger was shot in the head in cold blood on Saturday night in the parking lot of the Gerasdorf shopping center near Vienna. The alleged killer, also a Chechen, by Austrian police was previously known. The police immediately put him on the wanted list. Helicopters, cars, drones were involved in the operation to capture him. The Office for the Defense of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism was looking for a silver Audi with license plates for the city of Linz, located northwest of Vienna. The 47-year-old suspect was detained after 2 hours. His name is not reported, now he is in the police, is undergoing his interrogation. Today, the second suspect in the murder case near Vienna was detained. Police interrogated him as a witness, but he gave conflicting testimonies. This aroused suspicion among investigators, and the witness was arrested. It is also about the Chechen.

The murdered Anzor Umarov, who changed his name to Martin B., had powerful enemies in Chechnya. The former policeman kept his video blog and criticized Ramzan Kadyrov. Umarov posted 29 videos on YouTube (video here). The Vienna Department for the Defense of the Constitution monitored Umarov and believed that a member of the Chechen diaspora was in danger. He was even offered police protection, but Anzor Umarov refused it.

Musa Lomaev, another political emigrant from Chechnya who lives in Helsinki and heads the Chechen diaspora there, said that he learned about the murder from his friend, who arrived at the scene of the murder. Lomaev recalled that Umarov told him about the award assigned to his head. Former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Igor Mosiychuk said that he was constantly in contact with Anzor (Mamikhan Umarov).

As it became known , investigators have already found firearms near the crime scene and began to test it. The Department for the Defense of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism joined the investigation into the murder. Department employees have already investigated a similar crime 11 years ago. On January 13, 2009, on the street in the Vienna district of Floridsdorf, 27-year-old Umar Israilov, who fled from Chechnya, was shot dead. Israilov was a witness in a human rights court and accused Ramzan Kadyrov of torture. His killer Otto K. was a confidant of Kadyrov. Vienna prosecutors have suggested that Kadyrov ordered the killing of Israilov. Otto K. was sentenced to life imprisonment. The Vienna Administrative Court accused the police of indifference and naivety, believing that the police could not protect the political emigrant. The judges considered that the police underestimated the threat to Israilov’s life and reduced the degree of danger, as a result of which Israilov died.