Front Line was deeply saddened to learn of the assassination of anti-fascist human rights defender Mr Ivan Khoutorskoï in Moscow on 16 November 2009. Ivan Khoutorskoï was shot dead at the bottom of his apartment building, apparently by two shots to the head.

Prosecutors have stated that they are exploring several options including that of his murder as a result of his involvement in the anti-fascist movement. Anti-fascist activists are regularly targeted by ultra nationalists in Russia. A graduate in law, Ivan Khoutorskoï had recently worked as a lawyer in Deti ulitsy centre (Children of the Street), an organisation working with street children and other children with difficulties. He had been attacked three times since 2005, when his head was cut with a razorblade. In autumn 2005 he was stabbed in the neck with a sharpened screwdriver, and in January 2009 he was stabbed in the abdomen following a street assault.

It is reported by media that the fact that he was shot would show that his killing was a sponsored assassination, because in general Neo-Nazis attack using knives. The Institute of Collective Action (IKD), of whom Ivan Khoutorskoï was an active supporter, reports that ultra nationalist websites often publishes the names and addresses of anti-fascist sympathisers “in calling for their elimination”.

Ivan Khoutorskoï's killing follows that of Mr Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer murdered on 19 January 2009 in central Moscow from a gunshot wound to the head, along with the journalist who was accompanying him, Ms Anastasia Baburova. Stanislav Markelov had defended the family of an anti-fascist activist murdered by ultra nationalists. Front Line reported the death of Stanislav Markelov on 21 January 2009. Click on the following links to access the original Original Front Line Appeal