Ten people - including five police and Federal Security Service officers - have been arrested in connection with the murder of a Russian journalist, the Moscow Times reports.
Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who wrote for Russian publication Novaya Gazeta , was gunned down by an unknown assailant in
the elevator of her Moscow apartment building last year.
Her articles - many of which won international awards - were critical of federal actions in Chechnya, leading many observers to link her death to her job.
Announcing the arrests yesterday, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said it was likely Politkovskaya knew the person who had ordered her killing and that her death was probably carried out on behalf of someone living abroad in an effort to discredit Russia.
Those arrested - including three Chechen brothers, one FSB officer, one police major and three former police officers - belonged to a Moscow-based criminal group specialising in contract killings, Chaika told reporters.
He did not identify the suspects but said they would be charged in the upcoming days.
Politkovskaya's killing provoked an outcry from international media freedom watchdogs and Western nations called for swift action.
Chaika, who first broke the news about the arrests during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, said investigators lacked enough evidence to publicly name the person who ordered the murder, the Moscow Times reported.
However he indicated an extradition request would be made to the country where the suspect lived once sufficient evidence had been gathered.
Media freedom groups expressed skepticism about Chaika's announcement.
"We hope this announcement has not been made solely to defuse the protests of NGOs and questions from journalists who want the case solved," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
Oleg Panfilov, head of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, told the Moscow Times the arrests were little more than an attempt to spare Putin embarrassment on the upcoming anniversary of Politkovskaya's death.
Panfilov did not rule out, however, that prosecutors were correct to blame a Chechen-led criminal group.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
