Politkovskaya murder case goes to court
RIA-Novosti
Moscow, 2 October: The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office (PGO) has sent to court the criminal case on the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a spokesman for the PGO directorate for liaison with the media told RIA Novosti on Thursday (2 October).
Novaya Gazeta political correspondent Anna Politkovskaya was killed on 7 October 2006 inside the front door of the house (where she lived) in Lesnaya Ulitsa (street) in Moscow. The criminal shot the journalist four times and escaped.
"The indictment in the criminal case on the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya was approved on 1 October. The criminal case was sent to court for consideration on merit," the spokesman told the agency.
Three people have been charged with the journalist's murder: Sergey Khadzhikurbanov, Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Ibragim Makhmudov. Another man, Pavel Ryaguzov, faces charges of abuse of office and extortion.
The criminal case against the actual perpetrator of the murder, Rustam Makhmudov, and several others, was earlier separated from the above case and is still being investigated.
According to investigators, a lieutenant in the Federal Security Service (Ryaguzov) passed on information about Politkovskaya's residential address to former head of Chechnya's Achkhoy-Martanovskiy District Shamil Burayev, who then passed it on to the perpetrators of the crime.
Nine people were initially listed as being involved in the criminal case, but proceedings against four of them were later stopped and they were released from custody. (Passage omitted: Burayev was among those released).
The defendants' lawyers have announced that they would insist on the case being tried by a jury.
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