#25 - JRL 2008-108 - JRL Home
Court releases another suspect in Politkovskaya murder
case
MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti) - Another suspect in the 2006 murder of Russian
journalist Anna Politkovskaya was released from custody on Tuesday, the
investigation committee announced.
Vladimir Markin, an investigation committee spokesman, said that the suspect,
Shamil Buraev, was released on the condition that he remain in Russia. He was
released on the grounds that he had no previous convictions, had not attempted
to evade the authorities, and that he had four children and a father over 100
years old.
Four of the nine suspects had earlier been released from custody, also on the
condition that they remain in the country.
Another suspect, Kyrgyz national Rustam Makhmudov, has become the subject of
an international manhunt, a spokesman for the investigation committee at the
Russian Prosecutor General's Office announced earlier.
Markin also said that the preliminary investigation would be completed by
June 20, and that the case materials would be made available to Politkovskaya's
son, and then to the defendants.
Politkovskaya, who gained international recognition for her criticism of the
Kremlin and reports of military atrocities against civilians in the troubled
Caucasus republic of Chechnya, was gunned down in the entranceway of her Moscow
apartment building in October 2006.
Russia remains one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters.
According to data from the international organization Reporters Without Borders,
21 journalists were murdered in Russia between 2000 and 2007.
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