The Russian Ambassador to the Central African Republic spoke about the progress of the investigation into the murder of Russian journalists

The Russian Ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR), Vladimir Titorenko, spoke in an interview with RIA Novosti about the details of the investigation into the murder of Russian journalists in the summer of 2018. According to Titorenko, the dead journalists violated a number of laws when entering and staying in the Central African Republic and “it will be very difficult” to find the killers.

According to the ambassador, the investigation has the testimony of the only witness - the driver of the car in which Orkhan Dzhemal, Kirill Radchenko and Alexander Rastorguev were traveling. The investigation is being conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Central African Republic in cooperation with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

“As far as I know, today it has been established that they were attacked either by criminal elements or mercenaries, because there are many all kinds of mercenaries from neighboring states who are armed and engage in banditry. <...> All that could be done was to take statements from local residents who could at least see someone, and everything was done by the CAR authorities. Ballistic examinations were carried out, all materials were handed over, the journalists’ relatives were returned those things that were in the storage of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Central African Republic as evidence,” Titorenko explained.

He expressed regret that Dzhemal, Radchenko and Rastorguev decided to travel outside the city of Sibut at night, despite the recommendations of the authorities. “No one drives on the roads here at night, except for the armed units of the UN peacekeeping mission. But they drive in armored vehicles, with heavy weapons, with machine guns and cannons,” the ambassador emphasized.

Titorenko also said that the people who sent the journalists on the mission “apparently deliberately endangered their lives” and “did not provide the necessary level of security.”

“They (journalists - TD's note) should have notified the embassy [about the purpose of the trip], they would have been explained what the conditions are here, they would have provided consulting assistance, they would have helped them find a private security company [for escort]. And then, they entered in violation of many CAR laws. <…> They tried to enter the Berengo military base without obtaining permission from the CAR Ministry of Defense, and this is a secret military facility. We flew to Bangui without registering the import of filming equipment, and this is prohibited by law,” Titorenko said.

He also said that at the CAR embassy in Moscow, when obtaining visas, the group identified themselves as tourists. At the same time, the Investigation Management Center (ICC), which sent Dzhemal, Radchenko and Rastorguev to the CAR, without having the right to do so, issued them journalist IDs, which stated that they were UN volunteers. “That’s why they were let through [outside the city] because they had UN IDs, otherwise they would have simply been detained at the post and returned to spend the night in the city,” said the Russian Ambassador.

In January, relatives of Dzhemal and Radchenko said that they did not believe the Investigative Committee’s version of robbery as the reason for the murder of journalists. Dzhemal's ex-wife Irina Gordienko said that the Investigative Committee does not provide evidence of its version, unlike the Dossier center. Radchenko's father Alexander said that the clothes of the victims were destroyed, although the relatives asked to provide them for an independent examination. Radchenko Sr. called the testimony of the driver, who is a witness in the case, a lie.

The Dossier Center is a non-profit project of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The Investigative Committee called his investigation an attempt to “justify our own miscalculations,” since the journalists’ trip to the CAR was organized by another Khodorkovsky project, the SDG.

Journalist Orkhan Dzhemal, director Alexander Rastorguev and cameraman Kirill Radchenko were killed on July 30, 2018 on a highway near the city of Sibut. The LRC reported that journalists came to the CAR to film a film about Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC.