List of assassinated human rights activists
This is a list of murdered political dissidents and human rights activists. The list is chronological.
Intended victims | Year | Date | Title at the time | Place | Country | Assassin(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elijah Parish Lovejoy | 1837 | 7 November | American journalist, newspaper editor and abolitionist | Alton, Illinois | mob | |
Abraham Lincoln | 1865 | 15 April | President of the U.S. and anti-slavery activist | Washington, D.C. | John Wilkes Booth | |
John W. Stephens | 1913 | 22 February | American state senator who assisted freed slaves | Yanceyville, North Carolina | Ku Klux Klan | |
Francisco I. Madero | 1913 | 22 February | President of Mexico | Mexico City | Victoriano Huerta | |
Song Jiaoren | 1913 | 22 March | Chinese republican leader of Kuomintang | Shanghai | Wu Shiying | |
Jean Jaurès | 1914 | 31 July | French Marxist anti-war activist | Paris | Raoul Villain | |
John Chilembwe | 1915 | 3 February | Malawian philosopher and educator | Shire Highlands | British colonial officers | |
Leo Jogiches | 1919 | 10 March | German Marxist revolutionary | Berlin | Freikorps | |
Karl Liebknecht | 1919 | 15 January | German revolutionary | Berlin | Freikorps | |
Rosa Luxemburg | 1919 | 15 January | Polish-German revolutionary | Berlin | Freikorps | |
Charlemagne Péralte | 1919 | 1 November | Haitian nationalist leader | Port-au-Prince | U.S. Marines | |
Emiliano Zapata | 1919 | 10 April | Mexican peasant leader | Chinameca | Jesús Guajardo | |
Mustafa Suphi | 1921 | 28 January | Turkish communist leader | Black Sea | Turkish agents | |
Michael Collins | 1922 | 22 August | Irish independence leader | Béal na Bláth | Irish Civil War | |
Giacomo Matteotti | 1924 | 10 June | Italian anti-fascist | Rome | Blackshirts | |
Avni Rustemi | 1924 | 22 April | Albanian teacher and activist | Tirana | Jusuf Reçi | |
Takiji Kobayashi | 1933 | 20 February | Japanese author | Tokyo | police | |
Augusto César Sandino | 1934 | 21 February | Nicaraguan revolutionary | Managua | United States Marine Corps | |
Antonio Guiteras | 1935 | 8 May | Cuban politician | Matanzas | Cuban government | |
Walter W. Liggett | 1935 | 9 December | American journalist | Minneapolis, Minnesota | Blumenfeld | |
Abdul Rahman Shahbandar | 1940 | June | Syrian nationalist | Damascus | National Bloc members | |
Leon Trotsky | 1940 | 21 August | Soviet dissident | Coyoacán, Mexico City | Ramón Mercader | |
Marx Dormoy | 1941 | 26 July | French socialist politician | Montélimar | Comité secret d'action révolutionnaire | |
Carlo Tresca | 1943 | 11 January | American newspaper editor | New York City | NKVD | |
Mahatma Gandhi | 1948 | 30 January | Indian independence movement leader | New Delhi | Nathuram Godse | |
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán | 1948 | 9 April | Mayor of Bogotá | Bogotá | El Bogotazo | |
Julien Lahaut | 1950 | 18 August | Belgian Republican politician | Seraing | François Goossens | |
Leonardo Ruiz Pineda | 1952 | 21 October | Venezuelan lawyer | Caracas | police | |
Albert Patterson | 1954 | 18 June | American attorney | Phenix City, Alabama | Sheriff Albert Fuller | |
George W. Lee | 1955 | 7 May | American civil rights leader and minister | Midnight, Mississippi | Unidentified shooter | |
Lamar Smith | 1955 | 13 August | American civil rights leader, farmer, and veteran | Brookhaven, Mississippi | Unidentified shooter | |
Dr. Thomas Hency Brewer | 1956 | 18 February | American co-founder of a NAACP chapter | Columbus, Georgia | Luico Flowers | |
Ali Boumendjel | 1957 | 23 March | Algerian militant and lawyer | El Biar | Paul Aussaresses | |
Maurice Audin | 1957 | 11 June | Algerian student | Algiers | André Charbonnier | |
Ruben Um Nyobé | 1958 | 13 September | Cameroonian anti-colonialist | Boumnyébel | French army | |
Inejiro Asanuma | 1960 | 12 October | Japanese socialist politician | Tokyo | Otoya Yamaguchi | |
Salah Ben Youssef | 1961 | 12 August | Tunisian lawyer and politician | Frankfurt | Tunisian agents | |
Herbert Lee | 1961 | 25 September | American civil rights and voting rights activist | Liberty, Mississippi | E. H. Hurst | |
Mouloud Feraoun | 1962 | 15 March | Algerian journalist and translator | Algiers | OAS | |
William Lewis Moore | 1963 | 23 April | American protesting racial segregation | Attalla, Alabama | Unidentified/disputed shooter | |
Grigoris Lambrakis | 1963 | 27 May | Greek anti-war activist | Thessaloniki | Emannouel Emannouilides and Spyros Gotzamanis | |
Medgar Evers | 1963 | 12 June | American civil rights activist | Jackson, Mississippi | Byron De La Beckwith | |
Louis Allen | 1964 | 31 January | American voting rights activist | Amite County, Mississippi | Disputed | |
James Chaney | 1964 | 21 June | American civil rights | Mississippi | Ku Klux Klan | |
Andrew Goodman | 1964 | 21 June | American civil rights activist | Mississippi | Ku Klux Klan | |
Michael Schwerner | 1964 | 21 June | American civil rights activist | Philadelphia, Mississippi | Ku Klux Klan | |
Humberto Delgado | 1965 | 13 February | Portuguese anti-fascist | Olivenza | PIDE | |
Malcolm X | 1965 | 21 February | American human rights activist | New York City | members of the Nation of Islam | |
Pio Gama Pinto | 1965 | 24 February | Kenyan journalist | Nairobi | police | |
James Reeb | 1965 | 11 March | American minister and civil rights activist | Alabama | mob | |
Viola Liuzzo | 1965 | 25 March | American civil rights activist | Selma, Alabama | Ku Klux Klan | |
Jonathan Daniels | 1965 | 20 August | American civil rights activist | Hayneville, Alabama | Tom Coleman | |
Mehdi Ben Barka | 1965 | 29 October | Moroccan revolutionary fighter and politician | Paris | French intelligence agents | |
Sammy Younge Jr. | 1966 | 3 January | American civil rights and voting rights activist | Tuskegee, Alabama | Marvin Segrest | |
Vernon Dahmer | 1966 | 10 January | American civil rights and voting rights activist | Hattiesburg, Mississippi | Ku Klux Klan | |
Osende Afana | 1966 | 15 March | Cameroonian economist | Ndélélé | Cameroonian Armed Forces | |
Chit Phumisak | 1966 | 5 May | Thai Marxist historians | Waritchaphum | local villagers | |
Robert W. Spike | 1966 | 17 October | American civil rights activist | Columbus, Ohio | unknown | |
Wharlest Jackson | 1967 | 27 February | American NAACP chapter treasurer | Natchez, Mississippi | unknown | |
Benno Ohnesorg | 1967 | 2 June | German anti-war activist | West Berlin | Karl-Heinz Kurras | |
Che Guevara | 1967 | 9 October | Argentine revolutionary | La Higuera | Bolivia | CIA-assisted Bolivian forces |
Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1968 | 4 April | American civil rights activist | Memphis, Tennessee | James Earl Ray | |
Robert F. Kennedy | 1968 | 6 June | U.S. presidential candidate | Los Angeles, California | Sirhan Bishara Sirhan | |
Tom Mboya | 1969 | 05 July | Kenyan Cabinet Minister | Nairobi | Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge | |
Fred Hampton | 1969 | 4 December | American civil rights activist | Chicago, Illinois | members of the Chicago Police Department | |
Krim Belkacem | 1970 | 18 October | Algerian revolutionary fighter and politician | Frankfurt | unknown | |
Dhirendranath Datta | 1971 | 29 March | East Pakistani lawyer | Moynamoti | Pakistani Army | |
Maximiliano Gómez | 1971 | 23 May | Dominican Republic politician | orders of Joaquin Balaguer | ||
Ghassan Kanafani | 1972 | 8 July | Palestinian writer | Beirut | Mossad | |
Outel Bono | 1973 | 26 August | Chadian medical doctor and politician | Paris | French secret service and Chadian Government | |
Amílcar Cabral | 1973 | 20 January | Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean intellectual, poet, theoretician, and revolutionary | Conakry | Portuguese intelligence agents | |
Víctor Jara | 1973 | 16 September | Chilean teacher and theater director | Santiago | Pedro Barrientos | |
Silvio Frondizi | 1974 | 27 September | Argentine intellectual and lawyer | Buenos Aires | Argentine Anticommunist Alliance | |
Carlos Mugica | 1974 | 11 May | Argentine Roman Catholic priest and activist | Villa Luro | Rodolfo Almirón | |
José Tohá | 1974 | 15 March | Chilean journalist | Santiago | military | |
Omar Benjelloun | 1975 | 18 December | Moroccan journalist and trade union activist | Casablanca | Chabiba islamia | |
Herbert Chitepo | 1975 | 18 March | Rhodesian ZANU-activist | Lusaka | Rhodesian Security Forces | |
Josiah Mwangi Kariuki | 1975 | 2 March | Kenyan socialist politician | Nairobi | Kenyan police | |
Roque Dalton | 1975 | 10 May | Salvadoran poet, essayist, journalist, political activist, and intellectual | San Salvador | People's Revolutionary Army | |
Boonsanong Punyodyana | 1976 | 28 February | Thai socialist politician | Bangkok | unknown | |
Enrique Angelelli | 1976 | 4 August | Bishop of La Rioja | Sañogasta | Argentinian military | |
Orlando Letelier | 1976 | 21 September | Chilean economist, ex-ambassador | Washington, DC | Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional | |
Stephen Biko | 1977 | 12 September | South African anti-apartheid activist | Pretoria | South African Police Forces | |
Janani Luwum | 1977 | 17 February | Ugandan archbishop | Kampala | Idi Amin regime | |
Rutilio Grande | 1977 | 12 March | Salvadoran priest | Aguilares | mob | |
Mir Akbar Khyber | 1978 | 17 April | Afghan intellectual and editor | Kabul | Hekmatyar's Hezbi Islami | |
Henri Curiel | 1978 | 4 May | Egyptian left-wing political activist | Paris | OAS and Charles Martel Group | |
Georgi Markov | 1978 | 11 September | Bulgarian dissident | London | Bulgarian secret service | |
Harvey Milk | 1978 | 27 November | American LGBT human rights activist | San Francisco, California | Dan White | |
George R. Moscone | 1978 | 27 November | Mayor of San Francisco | San Francisco, California | Dan White | |
José Miguel Beñaran Ordeñana | 1978 | 21 December | Spanish Basque activist | Anglet | car bomb | |
Allard K. Lowenstein | 1980 | 14 March | American civil rights activist | New York City | Dennis Sweeney | |
Óscar Romero | 1980 | 24 March | Archbishop of San Salvador | San Salvador | mob | |
Walter Rodney | 1980 | 13 June | Guyanese historian, political activist and scholar | Georgetown | unknown | |
Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz | 1980 | 17 July | Bolivian writer, dramatist, and journalist | La Paz | Luis Garcia Meza | |
Enrique Álvarez Córdova | 1980 | 27 November | Salvadoran politicians | San Salvador | Brígada Anticomunista Maximiliano Hernández Martínez | |
John Lennon | 1980 | 8 December | British anti-war activist and ex-Beatle | New York City | Mark David Chapman | |
Pierre Declercq | 1981 | 19 September | French New Caledonian politician | Nouméa | unknown | |
Anwar Sadat | 1981 | 6 October | President of Egypt and peace activist | Cairo, Egypt | Egyptian Islamic Jihad | |
Attati Mpakati | 1983 | 24 March | Malawian dissident | Harare | Malawian agents | |
Benigno Aquino, Jr. | 1983 | 21 August | Filipino opposition leader | Manila | Filippino agents | |
Alan Berg | 1984 | 1 January | American attorney and talk radio show host | Denver, Colorado | Silent Brotherhood | |
Henry Liu | 1984 | 15 October | Taiwanese writer and journalist | Daly City, California | Bamboo Union | |
Jerzy Popiełuszko | 1984 | 19 October | Polish Roman Catholic priest | Włocławek | Polish Security Service | |
Gérard Hoarau | 1985 | 29 November | Seychellois politicians | London | France-Albert René regime | |
Shahnawaz Bhutto | 1985 | 18 July | Pakistani democracy activist | Nice | Zia ul-Haq regime | |
Murtaza Bhutto | 1985 | 20 September | Pakistani democracy activist | Karachi | police | |
Éloi Machoro | 1985 | 12 January | New Caledonian Kanak politician | Canala | French gendarme | |
Hugo Spadafora | 1985 | 13 September | Panamanian activist | La Concepción | Panamanian government | |
Olof Palme | 1986 | 28 February | Prime Minister of Sweden | Stockholm | unknown | |
Jaime Pardo Leal | 1987 | 11 October | Colombian lawyer and union leader | La Mesa | Colombian mafia | |
Dulcie September | 1988 | 29 March | South African anti-apartheid political activist | Paris | South African agents | |
Chico Mendes | 1988 | 22 December | Brazilian trade unionist and environmentalist | Xapuri | Darci and Darly Alves da Silva, Jerdeir Pereira | |
David Webster | 1989 | 1 May | South African anthropologist | Troyeville | South African Civil Cooperation Bureau | |
Jean-Marie Tjibaou | 1989 | 4 May | New Caledonian Kanak politician | Ouvéa | Djubelly Wéa | |
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou | 1989 | 13 July | Head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan | Vienna | Iranian agents | |
Luis Carlos Galán | 1989 | 18 August | Colombian journalist | Bogotá | Colombian mafia | |
Anton Lubowski | 1989 | 12 September | Namibian anti-apartheid activist | Windhoek | South African Civil Cooperation Bureau | |
Segundo Montes | 1989 | 16 November | Salvadoran priest | San Salvador | Salvadoran army | |
Ignacio Ellacuría | 1989 | 16 November | Salvadoran philosopher and theologian | San Salvador | Salvadoran army | |
Richard de Zoysa | 1990 | 18 February | Sri Lankan journalist and actor | Rajagiriya | Sri Lanka-linked death squad | |
Farag Foda | 1992 | 9 June | Egyptian professor | Heliopolis | Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya | |
Marsha P. Johnson | 1992 | 4 July | Gay liberation and AIDS activist | New York City | Unknown (described by witnesses as a "group of thugs") | |
Tavio Amorin | 1992 | 29 July 1992 | Togolese politician | Lomé | police | |
Tahar Djaout | 1993 | 26 May | Algerian journalist and poet | Algiers | Armed Islamic Group | |
Chris Hani | 1993 | 10 April | South African Anti-apartheid activist | Boksburg | Janusz Waluś | |
Melchior Ndadaye | 1993 | 21 October | Burundian intellectual and politician | Bujumbura | Burundi Army | |
Jorge Carpio Nicolle | 1993 | 3 July | Guatemalan newspaper publisher | Chichicastenango | mob | |
Cheb Hasni | 1994 | 29 September | Algerian musician | Oran | Armed Islamic Group | |
Jon Simmons | 1994 | 1 October | LGBT rights activist | Los Angeles | Unknown | |
Johan Heyns | 1994 | 5 November | South African Anti-apartheid activist | Pretoria | White South African extremists | |
Iqbal Masih | 1995 | 16 April | Pakistani child activist | Muridke | unknown | |
Jaswant Singh Khalra | 1995 | 6 September | Indian human rights activist | Jhabal | Kanwar Pal Singh Gill | |
Yitzhak Rabin | 1995 | 4 November | Prime Minister of Israel and peace activist | Tel Aviv, Israel | Yigal Amir | |
Kudirat Abiola | 1996 | 9 June | spouse of Nigerian presidential candidate Moshood Abiola | Lagos | team of six men | |
Abdelhak Benhamouda | 1997 | 28 January | Algerian trade unionist | Algiers | unknown | |
Lounès Matoub | 1998 | 25 June | Algerian musician | Beni Aïssi | police | |
Azem Hajdari | 1998 | 12 September | Albanian anti-communists | Tirana | Fatmir Haklaj, Jaho Mulosmani, and Naim Cangu | |
Sanjaasürengiyn Zorig | 1998 | 2 October | Mongolian activist | Ulaanbaatar | unknown | |
Galina Starovoytova | 1998 | 20 November | Russian dissidents | St Petersburg | Russian state security service | |
Norbert Zongo | 1998 | 13 December | Burkinabé publisher | Sapouy | Burkinabé agents | |
Bishop Juan José Gerardi | 1998 | 26 April | Guatemalan Roman Catholic bishop | San Sebastian Church | Guatemalan military personnels | |
Larisa Yudina | 1998 | 8 June | Russian journalist | Elista | unknown | |
Jaime Hurtado | 1999 | 17 February | Ecuadorian politician | Quito | Christian Steven Ponce | |
Jean Dominique | 2000 | 3 April | Haitian journalist | Port-au-Prince | unknown | |
Carlos Cardoso | 2000 | 22 November | Mozambican journalist | Maputo | Nyimpine Chissano and Aníbal dos Santos | |
Filemon Lagman | 2001 | 6 February | Filipino workers' leader | Quezon City | unknown | |
Phoolan Devi | 2001 | 25 July | Indian activist | New Delhi | Sher Singh Rana | |
Pim Fortuyn | 2002 | 6 May | Dutch politician and LGBT human rights activist | Hilversum, Netherlands | Volkert van der Graaf | |
Jarallah Omar | 2002 | 28 December | Yemeni politician, intellectual | Sana'a | Ali Ahmad al-Jarallah | |
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev | 2004 | 13 February | Chechen exiled separatist writer | Doha | FSB agents | |
Brian Williamson | 2004 | 5 June | Jamaican LGBT+ rights activist | Kingston | Dwight Hayden | |
Munir Said Thalib | 2004 | 7 September | Indonesian human rights activist | Schiphol | Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto | |
FannyAnn Eddy | 2004 | 28 September | LGBT rights activist | Freetown | Unknown | |
Deyda Hydara | 2004 | 16 December | Gambian newspaper reporter | Banjul | Yahya Jammeh regime | |
Elmar Hüseynov | 2005 | 2 March | Azerbaijani journalist | Baku | Azerbaijani regime | |
Dorothy Stang | 2005 | 15 March | Brazilian-American missionary | Anapu | Clodoaldo Carlos Batista and Raifran das Neves Sales | |
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos | 2005 | 23 September | Puerto Rican independence activist | Hormigueros | FBI | |
Anna Politkovskaya | 2006 | 7 October | Russian journalist | Moscow | three Chechen men | |
Aleksandr Litvinenko | 2006 | 23 November | Russian dissident | London | FSB agens | |
Hrant Dink | 2007 | 19 January | Turkish-Armenian editor, journalist and columnist | Istanbul | Ogün Samast | |
Gareth Williams | 2007 | 14 February | Gay rights activist | Mandeville | mob | |
Gabriel Mkhumane | 2008 | 1 April | Swazi opposition leader | Nelspruit | Swaziland government agents | |
Tonderai Ndira | 2008 | 13-22 May | Zimbabwean political dissident | Harare | Zimbabwean agents | |
Natalya Estemirova | 2009 | 15 July | Russian human rights activist | Ingushetia | unknown | |
David Kato | 2011 | 27 January | Gay rights activist and teacher | Mukono Town | Sidney Nsubuga Enoch | |
Raymond Taavel | 2012 | 17 April | LGBT rights activist | Halifax | Andre Noel Denny | |
Sakine Cansız | 2013 | 9 January | Turkish Kurdish women's rights activist | Paris | Turkish agents | |
Chokri Belaïd | 2013 | 6 February | Tunisian lawyer | El Menzah | Kamel Gaghgadhi | |
Avijit Roy | 2015 | 26 February | Bangladeshi online activist | Dhaka | Ansarullah Bangla Team | |
Boris Nemtsov | 2015 | 27 February | Russian political activist | Moscow | two Chechen men | |
Diana Sacayán | 2015 | 13 October | Argentinian transgender rights activist | Buenos Aires | Gabriel David Marino | |
Berta Cáceres | 2016 | 3 March | Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader | La Esperanza | employees of DESA | |
Xulhaz Mannan | 2016 | 25 April | Bangladeshi LGBT rights activist | Dhaka | Ansar-al-Islam, an Al-Qaida affiliate | |
Marielle Franco | 2018 | 14 March | Brazilian politician, feminist, and human rights activist | Rio de Janeiro | the Brazilian Government, allegedly | |
Arman Loni | 2019 | 2 February | Pashtun civil rights activist | Balochistan | Pakistani police, allegedly[1] |
References
- "Pakistan rights group to protest killing of activist". Aljazeera. 4 February 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.