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A former Russian police officer was to go on trial Wednesday on charges of involvement in the murder of crusading anti-Kremlin journalist Anna Politkovskaya, with mystery still surrounding who ordered the killing, AFP reports. Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov has been charged with murder for being part of criminal group that gunned down the 48-year-old Politkovskaya in her apartment building on October 7, 2006. The trial at the Moscow City Court is taking place under a special regime and is not open to the public or media. Investigators believe the gang was formed on the orders of Chechen criminal boss Lom-Ali Gaitukayev -- but that he was in the pay of the ultimate mastermind of the murder, who has yet to be identified. According to the investigation, Pavlyuchenkov’s role in the murder was to find out Politkovskaya’s location and identify her daily routine so the assassination could be carried out successfully. He also obtained the pistol that was used to kill her. Investigators believed Gaitukayev paid Pavlyuchenkov $150,000 to pass on as a reward to the murder gang. “Pavlyuchenkov tries to present himself as someone of little importance but he without doubt knows the mastermind (of the killing),” Politkovskaya’s son Ilya told a news conference on Tuesday. “The judges will undoubtedly close the trial to the public but we are not going to accept that it is kept secret,” he added. Gaitukayev organised the criminal gang “on the orders of an individual whose identity has yet to be identified by the investigation,” investigators have said. Gaitukayev was arrested in 2007 in a separate case and is now serving a jail sentence for the attempted murder of a businessman. Investigators have also charged three Chechen brothers, Dzhabrail, Ibragim and Rustam Makhmudov, and Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, another former police officer, with carrying out the murder as a group. According to the investigation, it was Rustam Makhmudov who pulled the trigger on Politkovskaya. Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov and Khadzhikurbanov have already been tried and acquitted over the affair. The supreme court then halted a retrial, sending the case back for more investigation. Politkovskaya was sharply critical of President Vladimir Putin and his strongman policies in the volatile North Caucasus. The murder coincided with his birthday.
A former Russian police officer was to go on trial Wednesday on charges of involvement in the murder of crusading anti-Kremlin journalist Anna Politkovskaya, with mystery still surrounding who ordered the killing, AFP reports.
Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov has been charged with murder for being part of criminal group that gunned down the 48-year-old Politkovskaya in her apartment building on October 7, 2006.
The trial at the Moscow City Court is taking place under a special regime and is not open to the public or media.
Investigators believe the gang was formed on the orders of Chechen criminal boss Lom-Ali Gaitukayev -- but that he was in the pay of the ultimate mastermind of the murder, who has yet to be identified.
According to the investigation, Pavlyuchenkov’s role in the murder was to find out Politkovskaya’s location and identify her daily routine so the assassination could be carried out successfully.
He also obtained the pistol that was used to kill her. Investigators believed Gaitukayev paid Pavlyuchenkov $150,000 to pass on as a reward to the murder gang.
“Pavlyuchenkov tries to present himself as someone of little importance but he without doubt knows the mastermind (of the killing),” Politkovskaya’s son Ilya told a news conference on Tuesday.
“The judges will undoubtedly close the trial to the public but we are not going to accept that it is kept secret,” he added.
Gaitukayev organised the criminal gang “on the orders of an individual whose identity has yet to be identified by the investigation,” investigators have said.
Gaitukayev was arrested in 2007 in a separate case and is now serving a jail sentence for the attempted murder of a businessman.
Investigators have also charged three Chechen brothers, Dzhabrail, Ibragim and Rustam Makhmudov, and Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, another former police officer, with carrying out the murder as a group.
According to the investigation, it was Rustam Makhmudov who pulled the trigger on Politkovskaya.
Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov and Khadzhikurbanov have already been tried and acquitted over the affair. The supreme court then halted a retrial, sending the case back for more investigation.
Politkovskaya was sharply critical of President Vladimir Putin and his strongman policies in the volatile North Caucasus. The murder coincided with his birthday.
