WANTED: Russian-Georgian (?) Hit-Man, Dead or Alive (?)

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 13 February 2020)

happy hunting ground click here for recent TNT reporting
about Istanbul's enduring appeal as an assassination 
location.



                      Makhauri, in a pensive moment.

                           
Ali Osaev, who had a Georgian ID card, fled to Turkey after the
Chechen war against Russia.  Osaev began to make a living in the
textile sector but he was killed in an ambush in front of his home in
Istanbul in 2009. 

At the time, police took Temur Makhauri into custody in connection
with Osaev's murder.  At his trial in Bakırköy, Istanbul,  Makhauri
claimed that Russian intelligence was responsible for the murders of
Chechens and that he worked for Georgian intelligence, where his
code name was 'Zona' (ghost).  In 2016, the court ruled that there was
insufficient evidence to convict Makhauri and he was acquitted.

With the end of the trial, Makhauri left Turkey.  In 2017, Ukrainian
newspapers reported that Makhauri had died from a bomb blast in
his car. 

Last year, a higher Turkish court voided the Bakırköy court's acquittal
of  Makhauri, citing investigative shortfalls.  At the new trial in
Bakırköy court the day before yesterday, the court decided to ask
Interpol and Georgian offials whether or not Makhauri is still alive (!).

 
     Osaev: the textile baron who never was.