The jury has recognized the evidence gathered by the Main Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee sufficient to convict five accomplices to the murder of Anna Politkovskaya: Lom-Ali Gaytukayev, his nephews – brothers Rustam, Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Sergey Khadzhikurbanov. They were found guilty of crimes under paragraphs “b, g, h” of part 2 of article 105 of the RF Criminal Code (murder), part 3 of article 222 (illegal handling of firearms), part 2 of article 125.1 and part 3 of article 148 of the RSFSR Criminal Code (abduction of a person and extortion).
The investigators and court have found that, Gaytukayev was an organizer of the crime. It was him, who in 2006 set up an organized group composed of other defendants and a policeman Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov. Gaytukayev had led the group until he was arrested for organization of an attempted murder of Ukrainian businessman Gennady Korban, of which he was convicted and is serving his time in prison. Later Gaytukayev controlled the activity of the group from prison by phone. Sergey Khadzhikurbanov was the one to organize the crime in Moscow. The defendants carefully planned the murder, purchased firearms, agreed their actions with each other. Having got from Pavlyuchenkov the information about Politkovskaya’s place of residence, on 7 October 2006 brothers Makhmudov settled themselves on her way home. When they saw their victim driving a car, Ibragim Makhmudov reported that to his brother Dzhabrail and he in his turn to Rustam, who entered the building and started waiting when the woman arrived. When the journalist got into the elevator, Rustam Makhmudov shot her several times form a pistol. He left the gun on the murder scene. After that the defendants fled the scene.
The base of the evidence was made up of conclusions of many expert examinations. They confirmed not only the fact that Rustam Makhmudov had been in the Politkovskaya’s building on the day of murder, but determined the car the accomplices used to flee the scene and a match between fibers found on the car seat and the murder weapon.
It has been also established that in 1996 Rustam Makhmudov took active part in kidnapping a businessman in Moscow and extorting from him a large sum of money.
Based on the guilty verdict the court is going to pass the sentence.
The criminal case against Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who had concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement, was severed into a separate lawsuit. The court sentenced Pavlyuchenkov to 11 years in a maximum-security penal colony.
At present every measure is being taken to identify a person who ordered Politkovskaya killing. The criminal case against the person has been severed in a separate lawsuit.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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