Father of Chechen Killed in Florida Says FBI Murdered Him
May 30th, 2013Via: Washington Post:
Despite earlier accounts of the incident,two law enforcement officials told The Washington Post on Wednesday that Todashev was not armed. His father said that he was shot seven times. The FBI has said that he attacked an agent, just moments after confessing to his part in the Waltham slayings.
The elder Todashev displayed photographs of his son’s body — apparently the same pictures as those shown by the younger man’s widow at a Florida news conference Wednesday evening — that he said show six shots to the body and a “control” shot to the back of the head.
“This is proof of cold-blooded murder,” said Maxim Shevchenko, a journalist and member of the presidential human rights council who organized Thursday’s news conference.
It was an “extrajudicial execution,” said Zaurbek Sadakhanov, a Chechen lawyer who also was present. “Why was he interrogated three times without a lawyer? Why no recording? Why seven shots? And why should I believe their version? Why do American policemen believe they can do whatever they want?”
Todashev’s father said his son had been planning to return to Chechnya on May 24, though he had apparently canceled his tickets before he was killed on May 22. He suggested that the FBI didn’t want his son to return to Russia.
“Maybe my son knew some sort of information that the police didn’t want to get out,” he said. “They shut him up. That’s my opinion.”
