Ex-cop charged over murder of Russian journalist

Russia says a former police officer has been charged with organising the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the crusading journalist who was shot dead outside her Moscow flat in 2006.

The Investigative Committee said yesterday that Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a lieutenant-colonel in the police at the time of the murder, has been charged with planning the killing. He is said to have tracked the journalist's movements using the cover of police work, in order to help the killers.

There has already been one trial over the murder, with the suspects acquitted of helping to organise the hit. Friends and colleagues of Politkovskaya were sceptical that the latest charges were a real breakthrough.

"Even if Mr Pavlyuchenkov did organise the killing, it's very unlikely he was the one who ordered it," said Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch in Moscow. "We need to see not only the killers, or the technical organisers, but also the mastermind brought to justice."

The killing of Politkovskaya, who was well known for her searing reports from Chechnya, drew a wave of condemnation from across the globe, but nearly six years later nobody has been brought to justice for her murder.

She worked for Novaya Gazeta, part-owned by the Independent's financial backer, Alexander Lebedev, and the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev.

The paper specialises in investigative reporting, and several of its journalists have been assassinated.

According to the Investigative Committee, Pavlyuchenkov was engaged by a Chechen criminal authority, who in turn had been hired by an unnamed person who was angry about the nature of Politkovskaya's reporting from Chechnya.

Many observers suspect Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed ruler of Chechnya. Many of Politkovskaya's investigations uncovered allegations of torture and abuse at the hands of militias loyal to Kadyrov.

But the Chechen leader has always vehemently denied any suggestion of involvement.

- Independent