Journalist battered to death

  • 2001-12-06
  • Jorgen Johansson, RIGA
The death on Nov. 28 of investigative journalist Gundars Matiss in the western Latvian town of Liepaja has prompted calls for police to take seriously claims that Matiss' killing was related to his work.

Matiss, a 35-year-old correspondent with the Liepaja-based Kurzemes Vards newspaper, died after being in a coma for two weeks following the attack with a wooden club in the stairwell of his apartment building.

Following his death police in Liepaja issued a statement saying they were working on two main theories - that the killing resulted from a personal vendetta or that it was a failed robbery attempt. They said however they did not rule out a connection to Matiss' work.

Anzels Remess, Kurzemes Vards' editor-in-chief, responded in a written statement that the latter explanation was the most likely.

Matiss specialized in the reporting of organized crime and smuggling and shortly before his beating participated in discussions with police and other journalists about organized smuggling through Liepaja port.

His last published article concerned four high-ranking Liepaja officials who he believed were involved in the illegal alcohol business.

Coming weeks after the murder in Riga of a senior judge, Janis Laukroze, Matiss' killing prompted fears that Latvia's criminal underworld is operating with increasing impunity. "If Matiss' murder is connected to his work, like the murder of judge Janis Laukroze, then it is another indication that organized crime has become a real and serious threat," commented Latvian journalist Karlis Streips.

Police have yet to make an arrest in connection with Laukroze's shooting outside his apartment on Oct. 15.

One thing police have to work on in the Matiss case is a description of the perpetrator he gave them before losing consciousness.

MP Dzintars Kudums, who as chairman of the Parliamentary Defense and Interior Affairs Committee participated alongside Matiss in discussing organized crime with the police, said he supposed the death was related to the illegal alcohol business.

"I will personally follow up on this crime and make sure this evildoer doesn't go unpunished," he declared.

Meanwhile international journalists' organization Reporters Sans Frontieres demanded in a letter to the Interior Ministry that all efforts be made to find and punish the killer.

"We urge you to do everything in your power to ensure the people behind this fatal attack are identified and judged," wrote Robert Mïnard, the organization's general secretary. "We also ask you not to exclude too quickly the possibility of an assault directly related to the journalist's work," he added.

Kaspars Migla, a journalist at Kurzemes Vards, told The Baltic Times a great sadness now prevailed in the news room and that staff were disappointed with the police's handling of the situation.

"The police only opened an investigation five days after he was attacked," Migla said. "They are working very slowly."