Former policeman charged with organizing murder of Russian journalist Politkovskaya

[News_Editor]

Former policeman charged with organizing murder of Russian journalist Politkovskaya

2011-10-28 16:23:45 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW (BNO NEWS) -- A former police officer was charged on Thursday with organizing the murder of Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, who faces life in prison if found guilty, has pleaded not guilty. Khadzhikurbanov's lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik said his client "refuses to answer the investigator's questions as he believes he is biased, but is ready to testify at the trial," the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

Official charges have also been brought against another suspected organizer of Politkovskaya's murder, former police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov and Rustam Makhmudov, the suspected killer. "The charges against Khadzhikurbanov are based on Pavlyuchenkov's testimony, who has slandered many people, as it turned out, so his testimony cannot make groundwork for criminal prosecution of my client," said Mikhalchik.

Khadzhikurbanov and Makhmudov's two brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim, were tried and acquitted for lack of evidence in 2009. The verdict was later overturned by Russia's Supreme Court, which ordered a retrial.

Politkovskaya, who received international acclaim for her investigative reports on human rights offenses in Chechnya, was killed in a stairwell of her apartment house in central Moscow on October 7, 2006. Her professional activities are believed to have prompted her murder.

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