Vyacheslav Yaroshenko

Korruptsiya i Prestupnost

June 29, 2009, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia

On June 29, 2009, Yaroshenko, editor-in-chief of the Rostov-on-Don newspaper Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, died of head injuries he received in an April 30 attack, in which he was found unconscious with a head wound in the entrance to his apartment building early in the morning. He was hospitalized with skull and brain trauma, underwent surgery, and spent five days in a coma, his deputy, Sergei Sleptsov, told CPJ at the time.

Sleptsov told Russian news outlets in June that he believed Yaroshenko was attacked in retaliation for the newspaper’s work. Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, an independent paper whose title translates to “Corruption and Crime,” had reported on corruption allegations involving Rostov law enforcement agencies.

Rostov law enforcement officials gave conflicting accounts of what happened to Yaroshenko in April. Immediately after the journalist was hospitalized, Rostov police said he was injured in a fistfight on a local street, Grigory Bochkaryov, a local correspondent for the Russian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, told CPJ. Bochkaryov said that police later said he had injured himself by falling down the stairs in the entrance of his apartment building.

Motive Unconfirmed: CPJ is investigating to determine whether the death was work-related.