According to the investigation, Chechen kingpin Lom-Ali Gaitukaev was an organizer of the murder along with detective Sergey Khadzhikurbanov. (In the photo: Politkovskaya's portrait on posters reading "What for?")
Photo: Yury Martyanov
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Politkovskaya Murder Investigation Done
The Russian Prosecutor’s Office’s Investigative Committee announced yesterday that it had completed its investigation of the murder of Novaya gazeta newspaper journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Former Moscow Department to Combat Organized Crime detective Sergey Khadzhikurbanov is incriminated in the murder along with accomplices brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov. Two other suspects were cleared of wrongdoing. In addition, Pavel Ryaguzov, senior detective in the Moscow Department of the FSB, is accused of abuse of office in connection with the case.
The investigation uncovered that the involvement in the case of Ryaguzov was limited to doing a favor for his old acquaintance former head of Achkhoi-Martan District in Chechnya Shamil Buraev. He provided him with Politkovskaya’s home address from the agency’s database. Buraev found the address at the request of his childhood friend Lom-Ali Gaitukaev. Neither Ryaguzov nor Buraev know that Politkovskaya’s murder was being planned, and so they were released from custody. Ryaguzov still faces charges in an unrelated case. They had been held since last August. Chechen kingpin Gaitukaev is named by the Investigative Committee as the second organizer of Politkovskaya’s murder, along with Khadzhikurbanov. Gaitukaev will be charged in a separate case.
Gaitukaev was convicted in February of this year of the attempted murder of Gennady Korban, an executive of the Ukrainian financial and industrial group Privat. His sentence in that case, 15 years’ imprisonment, went into effect May 21, after an appeal. The Russian Supreme Court shortened his sentence to 13 years, however. The Makhmudov brothers are Gaitukaev’s nephews. They are accused of abetting the crime by trailing Politkovskaya. A third brother, Rustam Makhmudov, is still wanted in the case.
Murat Musaev, lawyer for the Makhmudov brothers noted that the conclusions of the committee are at wide variance from the statements Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika made on the case last August. At that time, Chaika stated that ten people had been arrested in the case, which might be related to the murders of Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov and deputy chairman of the Central Bank Andrey Kozlov. Editor-in-chief of Novaya gazeta Dmitry Muratov expressed the opinion that the investigation was on the right track, but far from complete.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 19, 2008
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