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Anextrajudicial killing (also known as anextrajudicial execution or anextralegal killing)[1] is the deliberatekilling of a person without the lawful authority granted by ajudicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether lawfully or unlawfully, targeting specific people for death, which inauthoritarian regimes often involves political,trade union, dissident, religious and social figures. The term is typically used in situations that imply thehuman rights of the victims have been violated. Deathscaused by legal police actions (such as self defense)[1] or legal warfighting on a battlefield[2] are generally not included, even though military and police forces are often used for killings seen by critics as illegitimate. The label "extrajudicial killing" has also been applied to organized, lethal enforcement of extralegal social norms by non-government actors, includinglynchings andhonor killings.
Morris Tidball-Binz was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions on 1 April 2021 by theOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).[3][4]
Manyhuman rights organizations, includingAmnesty International andHuman Rights Watch, campaign against extrajudicial punishment.[5][6][7][8][9]
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative[10] measures the right to freedom from extrajudicial execution for countries around the world, using a survey of in-country human rights experts.[11]
Article 3(d) of theFirst Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits carrying out executions without passing a prior judgement by a competent and regularly constituted court with all commonly recognized judicial guarantees for everyone taking part in the trial.[12]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inBurundi.[13][14]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inDemocratic Republic of the Congo.[15]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inEgypt.[16][17][18][19][20] Egypt recorded and reported more than a dozen unlawful extrajudicial killings of apparent ‘terrorists’ in the country by the NSA officers and the Interior Ministry police in September 2021. A 101-page report detailed the ‘armed militants’ being killed in shootouts despite not posing any threat to the security forces or nations of the country while being killed, which in many cases were already in custody. Statements by the family and relatives of those killed claimed that the victims were not involved in any armed or violent activities.[21]
The 2019Universal Periodic Review of theUnited Nations Human Rights Council found that in 2016,Eritrean authorities committed extrajudicial killings, in the context of a "persistent, widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population" since 1991, including "the crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, other inhumane acts, persecution, rape and murder".[22]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inEthiopia.[23][24][25][26]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inIvory Coast.[27]
Extrajudicial executions are common in informal settlements inKenya.[28] Killings are also common in Northern Kenya under the guise of counter-terrorism operations.[29]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inLibya.[30]
Argentina'sNational Reorganization Process military dictatorship during the 1976–1983 period used extrajudicial killings systematically as way of crushing the opposition in the so-called "Dirty War"[31] or what is known in Spanish asLa Guerra Sucia. During this violent period, it is estimated that the military regime killed between eleven thousand and fifteen thousand people and most of the victims were known or suspected to be opponents of the regime.[32] These includedintellectuals, labor leaders, human rights workers, priests, nuns, reporters, politicians, and artists as well as their relatives.[33][34] Half of the number of extrajudicial killings were reportedly carried out by the murder squad that operated from a detention center in Buenos Aires calledEscuela Mecanica de la Armada.[32] The dirty wars in Argentina sometimes triggered even more violent conflicts since the killings and crackdowns precipitated responses frominsurgents.[33]
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Extrajudicial killings and death squadsare common in Brazil.[35][36][37][38][39] SenatorFlávio Bolsonaro, son of PresidentJair Bolsonaro, was accused of having ties to death squads.[40]
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When GeneralAugusto Pinochet assumed power in the1973 Chilean coup d'état, he immediately ordered the purges, torture, and deaths of more than 3,000 supporters of theprevious democratic socialist government without trial.[41] During hisregime, which lasted from 1973 to 1989, elements of theChilean Armed Forces andpolice continued committing extrajudicial killings. These included Manuel Contreras, the former head of Chile'sNational Intelligence Directorate (DINA), which served as Pinochet'ssecret police. He was behind numerous assassinations and human rights abuses such as the 1974 abduction andforced disappearance ofSocialist Party of Chile leaderVictor Olea Alegria. Some of the killings were also coordinated with other right-wing dictatorships in the Southern Cone in the so-calledOperation Condor. There were reports of United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involvement, particularly within its activities in Central and South America that promoted anti-Communist coups.[42] While CIA's complicity was not proven, American dollars supported the regimes that carried out extrajudicial killings such as the Pinochet administration.[42] CIA, for instance, helped create DINA and the agency admitted that Contreras was one of its assets.[43]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inColombia.[44]
An investigation of theSpecial Jurisdiction for Peace found that from 2002 to 2008, 6402 civilians were killed by theGovernment of Colombia, falsely claimed to beFARC rebels by theMilitary Forces of Colombia.[45]
Extrajudicial killings anddeath squads are common inEl Salvador.[5][46][47] During theSalvadoran Civil War, death squads achieved notoriety when far-right vigilantes assassinated ArchbishopÓscar Romero for his social activism in March 1980. In December 1980,four Americans—three nuns and a lay worker—were raped and murdered by a military unit later found to have been acting on specific orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing hundreds of peasants and activists, including such notable priests asRutilio Grande. Because the death squads involved were found to have been soldiers of theSalvadoran Armed Forces, which was receiving U.S. funding and training from American advisors during theCarter administration, these events prompted outrage in the U.S. and led to a temporary cutoff in military aid from theReagan administration,[citation needed] although death squad activity stretched well into the Reagan years (1981–1989) as well.[citation needed]
Honduras also had death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which wasBattalion 316. Hundreds of people, including teachers, politicians and union bosses, were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial support and training from the United StatesCentral Intelligence Agency.[48]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inJamaica.[49][50][51]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inMexico.[52]
On 7, 8, and 9 December 1982 fifteen prominent Surinamese men who had criticizedDési Bouterse's ruling military regime were murdered. This tragedy is known as theDecember murders. The acting commander of the armyDési Bouterse was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Surinamese court martial on 29 November 2019.
Based on a survey of human rights experts administered by the Human Rights Measurement Initiative, the U.S. scores a 4.1 on a scale of 0-10 on the right to freedom from extrajudicial execution.[53]
Lynching was the extrajudicial killings which began in the United States'pre–Civil War South in the 1830s and ended during thecivil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Although the victims of lynchings were members of various ethnicities, after roughly 4 millionenslavedAfrican Americans wereemancipated, they became the primary targets ofwhite Southerners. Lynchings in the U.S. reached their height from the 1890s to the 1920s, and they primarily victimisedethnic minorities. Most of the lynchings occurred in theAmerican South because the majority of African Americans lived there, butracially motivated lynchings also occurred in theMidwest andborder states.[54]
One issue regarding extrajudicial killing is the legal and moral status oftargeted killing by unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States.
Section 3(a) of theUnited StatesTorture Victim Protection Act contains a definition of extrajudicial killing:
a deliberate killing not authorized by a previous judgment pronounced by a regular constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples. Such term, however, does not include any such killing that, under international law, is lawfully carried out under the authority of a foreign nation.[55][ambiguous][a]
The legality of killings such as in thedeath of Osama bin Laden in 2011 and the death ofQasem Soleimani in 2020 have been brought into question. In that case, the US defended itself claiming the killing was not an assassination but an act of "National Self Defense".[56]There had been just under 2,500 assassinations by targeteddrone strike by 2015, and these too have been questioned as being extrajudicial killings.[57]
Concerns about targeted and sanctioned killings of non-Americans and American citizens in overseascounter-terrorism activities have been raised by lawyers, news firms[56] and private citizens.
On 30 September 2011 adrone strike in Yemen killed American citizensAnwar al-Awlaki andSamir Khan.[58] Both resided inYemen at the time of their deaths. The executive order approving Al-Awlaki's death was issued byBarack Obama in 2010, and was challenged by theAmerican Civil Liberties Union and theCenter for Constitutional Rights in that year. The U.S. president issued an order, approved by theNational Security Council, that Al-Awlaki's normal legal rights as a civilian should be suspended and his death should be imposed, as he was a threat to the United States. The reasons provided to the public for approval of the order were Al-Awlaki's links to the 2009Fort Hood Massacre and the2009 Christmas Day bomb plot, the attempted destruction of a Detroit-bound passenger-plane.[59] The following month, al-Awlaki's sonAbdulrahman al-Awlaki, anAmerican citizen, was killed by another US drone strike[60] and in January 2017Nawar al-Awlaki, al-Awlaki's eight-year-old daughter, also an American citizen and half-sister of Abdulrahman, was shot to death during theraid on Yakla by American forces[61] along with between 9[62] and 29[63] other civilians, up to 14 al-Qaeda fighters, and AmericanNavy SEALWilliam Owens.[64]
President Donald Trump continued the practice of extrajudicial killings of his predecessor. Those killed under this policy include:
The New York Times reported 13 November 2020 thatAbdullah Ahmed Abdullah was assassinated 7 August 2020 on the streets of Tehran by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States, according to four intelligence officials of the United States.[65]
Comments on Michael Reinoehl's death
On 3 September 2020, a law enforcement officer inLacey, Washington fatally shotMichael Forest Reinoehl during a shootout. Reinoehl initiated the shootout according to statements by officials. However, there were conflicting witness reports, most notably Nathaniel Dingess, who toldThe New York Times, that agents opened fire on Reinoehl while on the phone and eating candy without verbal warning.[66][67][68][69] Dingess said that Reinoehl attempted to take cover by the side of a car before he was fatally shot and was only carrying a phone.[70] Reinoehl was a self-describedAntifa activist who was charged of second-degree murder by thePortland Police Bureau following the fatal shooting on 29 August 2020, of aPatriot Prayer supporter,Aaron J. Danielson, inPortland, Oregon.[71] In aFox News cable television interview 12 September 2020, hosted byJeanine Pirro, President Trump commenting on Reinoehl's death said, "This guy [Reinoehl] was a violent criminal, and theU.S. Marshals killed him... And I will tell you something – that's the way it has to be".[72] At anOctober 15, 2020 rally inGreenville, North Carolina he further elaborated on his praise for the shooting. Trump said "they didn't want to arrest him", whichRolling Stone characterized as Trump describing Reinoehl's death as an extrajudicial killing.[73] although in a statement immediately after the death theUnited States Marshals Service had said that their task force was attempting to arrest Reinoehl.[73][74]
PresidentJoe Biden continued his predecessors' practice of extrajudicial killings. Those killed during his administration include:
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inVenezuela.[75][76] According toHuman Rights Watch almost 18,000 people have been killed by security forces inVenezuela since 2016 for "resistance to authority" and many of these killings may constituteextrajudicial execution.[77]Amnesty International estimated that there were more than 8,200 extrajudicial killings in Venezuela from 2015 to 2017.[78]
Ahead of a three-week session of theUnited Nations Human Rights Council, the OHCHR chief,Michelle Bachelet, visited Venezuela between 19 and 21 June 2019.[79] Bachelet expressed her concerns for the "shockingly high" number of extrajudiciary killings and urged for the dissolution of theSpecial Action Forces (FAES).[80] The report also details how the Venezuelan government has "aimed at neutralising, repressing and criminalising political opponents and people critical of the government" since 2016.[80]
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials presided over murders, abduction, and other abuses with the tacit backing of their government and its western allies,[81]Human Rights Watch alleged in its report from March 2015.[82]
Australian extrajudicial killings:
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inBangladesh.[83][84][85]
TheBangladesh Police special security forceRapid Action Battalion (RAB) has long been known for extrajudicial killing.[86] In a leakedWikiLeaks cable it was found that RAB was trained by theUK government.[87] 16 RAB officials (sacked afterwards) including Lt Col (sacked)Tareque Sayeed, Major (sacked) Arif Hossain, and Lt Commander (sacked) Masud Rana were given death penalty for abduction, murder, concealing the bodies, conspiracy and destroying evidences in theNarayanganj Seven Murder case.[88][89][90][91]
Beside this many alleged criminals were killed by Bangladesh police by the name ofCrossfire.[92] In 2018, many alleged drug dealers were killed in the name of "War on Drugs" in Bangladesh.[93][94][95]
TheUnited Nations criticised the government underSheikh Hasina for high rates of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, especially the members ofBangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, including former electedMPs.[96]
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was a political refugee from India living in Canada. He was murdered 18 June 2023. Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau accused 18 September 2023 the Indian government publicly of complicity.[97]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common in India.[98][99][100] A form of extrajudicial killing is calledpolice encounters. Such encounters are also being staged by military and othersecurity forces.[98][99][100] Extrajudicial killings are also common in Indian states especially inUttar Pradesh where 73 people were killed from March 2017 to March 2019.[101]Police Encounter on 6 December 2019, by theTelangana Police in the2019 Hyderabad gang rape case killing the 4 accused is another form of extrajudicial killing.
The secret killings of Assam (1998–2001) was probably the darkest chapter in Assam's political history when relatives, friends, sympathisers ofUnited Liberation Front of Asom insurgents were systematically killed by unknown assailants. These extrajudicial murders happened in Assam between 1998 and 2001. These extrajudicial killings were conducted by theGovernment of Assam usingSULFA members and the security forces in the name of counter-insurgency operations. The victims of these killings were relatives, friends and colleagues of ULFA militants. The most apparent justification for the whole exercise was that it was a tit-for-tat response to the ULFA-sponsored terrorism, especially the killings of their old comrades—the SULFAs.[102][103][104][105][106]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inIndonesia.[107]
In the1953 Iranian coup d'état a regime was installed through the efforts of the AmericanCIA and the BritishMI6 in which the Shah (hereditary monarch)Mohammad Reza Pahlavi usedSAVAK death squads (also trained by the CIA) to imprison, torture and/or kill hundreds of dissidents. After the1979 revolution death squads were used to an even greater extent by the new Islamic government. In 1983, the CIA gave theSupreme Leader of Iran—Ayatollah Khomeini—information onKGB agents in Iran. This information was probably used. The Iranian government later used death squads occasionally throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; however by the 2000s it seems to have almost entirely, if not completely, ceased using them.[108]
The Dutch secretary of Foreign AffairsStef Blok wrote January 2019 to theStates General of the Netherlands that the intelligence serviceAIVD had strong indications that Iran is responsible for the murder of Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi in 2015 in Almere and of Ahmad Mola Nissi in 2017 in The Hague.[109]
On 4 February 2021 Iranian diplomatAsadollah Asadi and three other Iranian nationals were convicted in Antwerp for plotting tobomb a 2018 rally of National Council of Resistance of Iran in France.
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inIraq.[110][111][112][113]
Iraq was formed as aLeague of Nations mandate by the partition and domination of various tribal lands by theBritish Empire in the early 20th century, after thebreak-up of the Ottoman Empire in theaftermath of World War I. TheUnited Kingdom granted independence to theKingdom of Iraq in 1932, on the urging ofKing Faisal, though theBritish Armed Forces retained military bases and transit rights.King Ghazi of Iraq ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal's death in 1933, while undermined by attempted military coups, until his death in 1939.The United Kingdom invaded Iraq in 1941 for fear that the government ofRashid Ali al-Gaylani might cut oil supplies to Western nations, and because of his links to theAxis powers. A military occupation followed the restoration of theHashemite monarchy, and the occupation ended on 26 October 1947. Iraq was left with a national government led fromBaghdad made up ofSunni ethnicity in key positions of power, ruling over an ad hoc nation splintered by tribal affiliations. This leadership used death squads and committed massacres in Iraq throughout the 20th century, culminating in theBa'athist dictatorship ofSaddam Hussein.[114]
The country has since become increasingly partitioned following theIraq War into three zones: aKurdish ethnic zone to the north, a Sunni center and theShia ethnic zone to the south. ThesecularArab socialistBaathist leadership were replaced with a provisional and later constitutional government that included leadership roles for the Shia (Prime Minister) and Kurdish (President of the Republic) peoples of the nation. This paralleled the development of ethnic militias by the Shia, Sunni, and the Kurdish (Peshmerga).
There weredeath squads formed by members of every ethnicity.[115] In the national capital of Baghdad some members of the now-ShiaIraqi security forces (and militia members posing as members ofIraqi Police orIraqi Armed Forces) formed unofficial, unsanctioned, but long-tolerated death squads.[116] They possibly had links to theInterior Ministry and were popularly known as the 'black crows'. These groups operated night or day. They usually arrested people, then either tortured[117] or killed[118] them.
The victims of these attacks were predominantly young males who had probably been suspected of being members of the Sunniinsurgency. Agitators such as Abdul Razaq al-Na'as, Dr. Abdullateef al-Mayah, and Dr. Wissam Al-Hashimi have also been killed. These killings are not limited to men; women and children have also been arrested and/or killed.[119] Some of these killings have also been part of simple robberies or other criminal activities.
A feature in a May 2005 issue of the magazine ofThe New York Times claimed that theMulti-National Force – Iraq had modelled the "Wolf Brigade", the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, on the death squads used in the 1980s to crush the left-wing insurgency inEl Salvador.[120]
Western news organizations such asTime andPeople disassembled this by focusing on aspects such as probablemilitia membership, religious ethnicity, as well as uniforms worn by these squads rather than stating theUnited States-backed Iraqi government had death squads active in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.[121]
In a report from October 2015,Amnesty International documented incidents that "appear to have been extrajudicial executions" against Palestinian civilians.[122] Several of those incidents occurred after Palestinians attempted to attack Israelis orIsrael Defense Forces soldiers. Even though the attackers did not pose a serious threat, they were shot without attempting to arrest the suspects before resorting to the use of lethal force. Medical attention for severely wounded Palestinians was in many cases delayed by Israeli forces.[122][123][124]
The New York Times reported 13 November 2020 thatAbdullah Ahmed Abdullah was assassinated 7 August 2020 on the streets of Tehran by Israeli operatives at the behest of the United States, according to four intelligence officials of the United States.[65]
Iranian nuclear physicistMohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed 27 November 2020 on a rural road in Absard, a city near Tehran. One American official — along with two other intelligence officials — said that Israel was behind the attack on the scientist.[125]
On 16 March 2023, the Israeli Army killed four Palestinian militants inJenin. One motionless victim was shot in the head. According to The Guardian, the Israeli group of military veterans against the occupation,Breaking the Silence, called this an "extrajudicial execution".[126]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inPakistan.[127] A form of extrajudicial killing calledencounter killings by police is common in Pakistan.[128] Case in point isNaqeebullah Mehsud andSahiwal Killings. TheProvince of Balochistan has also seen a significant number of disappearances, many of which have been attributed to security forces by residents: anti-governmentBaloch nationalists claim thousands of cases and have stated a belief that most of these disappeared persons have been killed.[129] Official numbers of disappeared persons have varied considerably, ranging between 55 and 1,100 victims.[130] Human rights organizations have dubbed this practice as the "kill and dump policy".[131]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inPapua New Guinea.[132][133]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inPhilippines.[134][135][136][137][138][139][140][excessive citations]
TheCommittee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called the massacre the single deadliest event forjournalists in history.[141] Even prior to this, the CPJ had labeled thePhilippines the second most dangerous country for journalists, second only toIraq.[141]
Following the victory ofRodrigo Duterte in the2016 Philippine presidential election, a campaign against illegal drugs has led to widespread extrajudicial killings. This follows the actions by then-Mayor Duterte to roamDavao in order to "encounter to kill".[142]
The Philippine president has urged itscitizens to kill suspected criminals and drug addicts,[143] ordered the police to adopt ashoot-to-kill[144] policy, has offeredrewards for killing suspects,[145] and has even admitted to personallykilling suspected criminals.[146]
The move has sparked widespread condemnation frominternational publications[146][147][148][149][150] andmagazines,[151][152][153] prompting the Philippine government to issue statements denying the existence of state-sanctioned killings.[154][155][156]
Though Duterte's controversialwar on drugs was opposed by theUnited States under PresidentBarack Obama,[157] theEuropean Union,[158] and the United Nations, Duterte claims that he has received approving remarks from US PresidentDonald Trump.[159]
On 26 September 2016, Duterte issued guidelines that would enable the United Nations Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings to probe the rising death toll.[160] On 14 December 2016, Duterte cancelled the planned visit of the Rapporteur who declined to accept government conditions that were not consistent with the code of conduct for special rapporteurs.[161][162]
The Saudi dissidentJamal Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018.
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inSyria.[163][164][165]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inTajikistan.[166][167]
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inThailand.[168] Reportedly thousands ofextrajudicial killings occurred during the 2003 anti-drug effort ofThailand's prime ministerThaksin Shinawatra.
Rumors still persist that there is collusion between the government, rogue military officers, the radical right wing, and anti-drugdeath squads.[169][170][171][172][173][174][175]
BothMuslim[176] andBuddhist[177] sectarian death squads still operate in the south of the country.
Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common inTurkey.[178][179][180][181][182] In 1990Amnesty International published its first report onextrajudicial executions in Turkey.[180] In the following years the problem became more serious. TheHuman Rights Foundation of Turkey determined the following figures on extrajudicial executions in Turkey for the years 1991 to 2001:[183]
| 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
| 98 | 283 | 189 | 129 | 96 | 129 | 98 | 80 | 63 | 56 | 37 |
In 2001, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Ms.Asma Jahangir,presented a report on a visit to Turkey.[184] The report presented details of killings of prisoners (26 September 1999, 10 prisoners killed in a prison in Ankara; 19 December 2000, an operation in 20 prisons launched throughout Turkey resulted in the death of 30 inmates and two gendarmes).
For the years 2000–2008, theHuman Rights Association (HRA) gave the following figures on doubtful deaths/deaths incustody/extra judicial execution/torture by paid village guards:[185]
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| 173 | 55 | 40 | 44 | 47 | 89 | 130 | 66 | 65 |
In 2008, the human rights organization Mazlum Der counted 25 extrajudicial killings in Turkey.[186]
Nguyễn Văn Lém (died 1 February 1968 in Saigon), also referred to as Captain Bảy Lốp, was a member of theViet Cong who was summarily shot inSaigon during theTet Offensive. The photograph of his death would become one of many anti-Vietnam War icons in theWestern World.[187]
In 1999,Belarusian opposition leadersYury Zacharanka andViktar Hanchar together with his business associateAnatol Krasouski disappeared. Hanchar and Krasouski disappeared the same day of a broadcast on state television in which PresidentAlexander Lukashenko ordered the chiefs of his security services to crack down on "opposition scum". Although theState Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (KGB) had them under constant surveillance, the official investigation announced that the case could not be solved. The disappearance of journalistDzmitry Zavadski in 2000 has also yielded no results. Copies of a report by theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which linked senior Belarusian officials to the cases of disappearances, were confiscated.[188]Human Rights Watch claims that Zacharanka, Hanchar, Krasouski and Zavadski likely became victims of extrajudicial executions.[189]
Extrajudicial killings have taken place inRussia.[190][191] In the Russian Federation,a number of journalist murders were attributed to public administration figures, usually where the publications would reveal their involvement in large corruption scandals. It has been regarded that thepoisoning of Alexander Litvinenko was linked to Russian special forces. American and British intelligence agents have claimed that Russian assassins, some possibly at orders of the government, are behind at least fourteentargeted killings in the United Kingdom that police authorities have termed non-suspicious.[192] The United Kingdom attributes thepoisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March 2018 to the Russian military-intelligence agencyGRU. The German foreign minister Heiko Maas said there were "several indications" that Russia was behind thepoisoning of Alexei Navalny.[citation needed]
In 2006, theFederal Security Service (FSB) was given the legal power to engage in targeted killing of terrorism suspects overseas if ordered by the president.[193] In August 2019, former Chechen rebel commanderZelimkhan Khangoshvili was assassinated inBerlin by FSB operativeVadim Krasikov.[194]
According to an investigative report byNovaya Gazeta, some of thesuspicious deaths of Russian businesspeople in 2022–2023 may possibly be connected to large scaleaccounting fraud byGazprom executives, who may have funneled money to a network of businesses owned by friends and family members with ties to the FSB and Russian military.[195]
InSoviet Russia, since 1918 the secret police organizationCheka was authorized to executecounter-revolutionaries without trial. Hostages were also executed by Cheka during theRed Terror in 1918–1920. Thesuccessors of Cheka also had the authority for extrajudicial executions. In 1937–38 hundreds of thousands were executed extrajudicially during theGreat Purge under the lists approved byNKVD troikas. In some cases, the Soviet special services did not arrest and then execute their victims but just secretly killed them without any arrest. For example,Solomon Mikhoels was murdered in 1948 and his body was run over to create the impression of a traffic accident. The Soviet special services also conducted extrajudicial killings abroad, most notably ofLeon Trotsky in 1940 inMexico,Stepan Bandera in 1959 in Germany,Georgi Markov in 1978 in London.
From 1983 until 1987, the Spanish government supported paramilitary squads, denominatedGAL, to fightETA, a Basque terrorist organization. A relevant example was theLasa and Zabala case, in which José Antonio Lasa and José Ignacio Zabala were kidnapped, tortured and executed by police forces in 1983.
TheWashington Post published 23 October 2023 about extrajudicial killings by Ukraine’s domestic security service, the SBU.[196]
In March 2022, Ukrainian banker and intelligence officerDenys Kireyev was shot in the back of the head by theSecurity Service of Ukraine (SBU).[197]
Duringthe Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict inNorthern Ireland, British security forces and intelligence agents were accused of committing extrajudicial killings against suspectedIRA members.[198][199]Brian Nelson, anUlster Defence Association member and secret British agent, was convicted in a court of sectarian murders.[200][201][202]
Operation Kratos referred to tactics developed by London'sMetropolitan Police for dealing with suspected suicide bombers, most notably firing shots to the head without warning. Little was revealed about these tactics until after themistaken shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on 22 July 2005.[citation needed]
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According to the Thurston County investigators reviewing the case, Reinoehl "initiated" an exchange of gunfire with officers before he was killed
Portland police obtained a warrant Thursday afternoon charging Reinoehl with second-degree murder with a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon.
The fugitive task force located Reinoehl in Olympia and attempted to peacefully arrest him. Initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers. Task force members responded to the threat and struck the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene.
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