The Monday announcement of Russia’s Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, on the photo, about solving the crime related to murder of Anna Politkovskaya was apparently premature.
Photo: Alexey Kudenko
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Politkovskaya Case Loses Suspects
The Monday announcement of Russia’s Prosecutor General Yury Chaika about solving the crime related to murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya was apparently premature. The investigators have released one of the suspects, while another has an ironclad alibi – he was in prison that time. The third one was detained under a different case.
One of 11 suspects arrested over the murder of Anna Politkovskaya was released from detention facilities yesterday. On August 16, private guard Alexey Berkin was arrested together with a few police officers of Moscow thought to be accomplices of Lasagne criminal group of Chechens. According to detectives, Politkovskaya was killed exactly by those Chechens, while enforcement officers helped them by tracing the reporter and collecting information. The prosecutors had 12 days overall to get evidences against Berkin but failed to find anything that would suffice for further detention.
Berkin couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.
The alibi of another suspect, former major of Moscow police Sergey Khadzhikurbanov is ironclad. He was long in prison on the day of Politkovskaya’s murder and, therefore, was hardly able to participate either in the actual killing or in its arrangement.
The third suspect, FSB Half Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov, was arrested on the office abuse. His mates said the prosecutors resumed the case of 2002, when Ryaguzov was charged with beating the detained.
A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, Novaya Gazeta investigating journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in Moscow on October 7, 2006 when leaving her apartment to get into the lift.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 30, 2007
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