| AL Jazeera Europe | ||
| Rustam Makhmudov is the suspected assassin of journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was shot dead in 2006. Last Modified: 31 May 2011 10:59 | ||
Russia has arrested Rustam Makhmudov, the suspected assassin of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in 2006, his family's lawyer has said. Makhmudov was arrested on Monday night in Chechnya at the home of his parents after being on the run for years, lawyer Saidakhmet Arsamerzayev told AFP news agency. Dmitry Babich, a political analyst and journalist for the Russian International News Agency, or RIA Novosti, told Al Jazeera that Politkovskaya's colleagues at Novaya Gazeta, a Russian opposition newspaper, agree that Makhmudov is most likely the murderer. "So the biggest question is not who performed the murder, but who ordered it," Babich said. "You know that Novaya Gazeta is very much in opposition to the Russian government, so they suspect someone from the current leadership of Chechnya (which is pro-Moscow) is behind the assassination." Makhmudov's brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim, and former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov have been investigated for several years over suspected involvement in the killing. All three were acquitted on a lack of evidence in a jury trial in 2009, but the verdict was annulled by the supreme court and a new investigation reopened with the same suspects. "The relatives of Politkovskaya and other fellow journalists agree that these two brothers were tracking her movements on the day she was killed. They were suspected of actually giving the signal to the killer who was waiting inside her (apartment) building," Babich said. Politkovskaya was renowned for her opposition to the Chechen conflict. She reported on the alleged human rights abuses of Russian military forces under the leadership of former Russian president Vladimir Putin, of the Chechen rebels and the current Moscow-backed administration led by the Kadyrov family in Chechnya. The murder of Politkovskaya came while her reporting became an increasing threat to the Chechen regime, which was allegedly responsible for the rampant torture, abduction, and murder of opposition figures. She wrote several books about the Chechen wars, as well as Putin's Russia - in which she accused Russian secret services of repressing civil liberties to re-establish a Soviet-style dicatorship. Politkovskaya received numerous prestigious international awards for her work. Her murder was widely perceived as a contract killing, sparking a strong international reaction. | ||
| Source: Agencies | ||
| | ||
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Russia arrests suspected Politkovskaya killer
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment