#22 - JRL 2007-188 - JRL Home
Court re-sanctions FSB officer arrest in Politkovskaya
murder
MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow military court sanctioned once
again the arrest of FSB Lt. Col. Pavel Ryaguzov, a suspect in the murder of
journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a court press secretary said Tuesday.
"The court ruled that the measure of restraint for Pavel Ryaguzov should be
custody," Alexander Minchanovsky said.
But Andrei Trepykhalin, a lawyer for Ryaguzov, said the arrest of his
defendant was based on other charges, which were not connected in any way with
the Politkovskaya murder.
The lawyer added that the Russian Prosecutor General's office did not inform
Ryaguzov's defense team of the investigation of Politkovskaya murder, and that
therefore it was not clear what status his defendant had in that particular
case.
Ryaguzov, who was initially arrested August 21, is charged with abuse of
office, abduction and illegal entry of premises, offenses that he allegedly
committed in 2002, Trepykhalin said.
But on Monday, the Moscow District Military Court ruled that the arrest of
Ryaguzov was illegal, overruling a lower military court, which sanctioned the
officer's arrest, and ordered a new hearing.
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika announced last week that 10 people, "including
direct organizers, accomplices and perpetrators of the crime," had been arrested
in the case.
Last Thursday, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office released two suspects
in Politkovskaya's murder, Alexei Berkin and Oleg Alimov.
According to Kommersant, a Russian business daily, another suspect named by
Chaika, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police major, had a cast-iron alibi:
Convicted in 2004 on abuse of office charges, he was not released from prison
until December 2006, at least two months after the murder.
Chaika announced that a Chechen-born leader of a Moscow organized crime
group, known to the journalist, masterminded the murder, and said former and
serving security and police officers had been arrested in the investigation.
The gang leader who allegedly masterminded Politkovskaya's killing was well
known to the journalist, and the two had met, Chaika said.
He said the suspect is currently abroad, but declined to name him. "I can't
give his name, as the investigation is still underway," he said.
Anna Politkovskaya, known for her criticism of the Kremlin's policy in
Chechnya, was gunned down in an apparent contract killing in an elevator of her
apartment building October 7, 2006 in Moscow, at age 48.
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