MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. A notebook and a mobile phone may become major clues in a probe into the murder of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic (CAR), Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.
"Law enforcement agencies in the Central African Republic continue a probe. A notebook, removable media as well as a mobile phone of one of the journalists with the Russian and Central African SIM cards may become major pieces of evidence for the investigators," she said.
"At the present moment an inquiry to a local mobile phone operator is prepared with the request to provide information about calls and messages from that phone," the diplomat added.
She said on August 7, diplomats from the Russian Embassy met with the leadership of the CAR Gendarmerie. "Local law enforcement officers briefed the Russian diplomats on the facts the investigators know, obtained during a probe into the murder of the journalists, as well as gave them an opportunity to talk to the driver who had been carrying them, and who is an eyewitness to what happened," Zakharova said.
"According to the driver, the Russian journalists got acquainted with him in a caf· in Bangui on July 28, and suggested that he accompany them on a personal car for ten days. "On the following day, the journalists made an attempt to get into a training camp where Russian instructors train Central African military, but they had no documents identifying them as journalists and permissions from the CAR Defence Ministry to visit a military facility," she went on to say.
"With that in view, the Central African soldiers protecting the camp denied access at that stage," she said. "At about 11 am on July 30, the journalists headed to the town of Bambari, north of the capital of the CAR," Zakharova went on to say.
"They made a stopover in the town of Damara, 70 kilometers from Bangui, and were filming and talking to local residents for an hour-and-a-half. After that, without explaining the reasons, the journalists decided to deviate from their initial route, asking the driver to head to the town of Dekoa. After they had arrived in Sibut, located on the way to Dekoa, their car was stopped at about 18:30 by Central African military patrol officers who insistently advised them against traveling further, but to overnight in Sibut, as the territory not under the authorities’ control begins outside the town," the Russian diplomat said.
"However, the journalists insisted, saying they were hurrying somewhere. As it has been established, this bid to continue traveling and an insistent advice against this from the local authorities triggered a quarrel, as a result of which they were eventually allowed to drive by," she added.
The driver "repeats in general his earlier version about an attack by unidentified armed robbers on the road to Dekoa between 20:00 and 21:00," she stressed.
The Russian embassy in the Central African Republic said on July 31 that three men had been found dead near the city of Sibut (300 kilometers north of the CAR’s capital city Bangui) on July 30. According to a UN spokesperson, the bodies were found near an abandoned car with numerous gunshots. The men had press cards featuring the names Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguyev and Orkhan Dzhemal.
The journalists entered the country with tourist visas to shoot a documentary. They arrived in Bangui on July 27 and set off for Deko and further north to Kaga-Bandoro on a jeep driven by a CAE national. They were seized and killed near Sibut of July 30, according to the local radio. The driver survived.
On August 5, the bodies were airlifted to Russia.