09. 06. 2014

LIFE SENTENCES FOR KILLERS OF RUSSIAN JOURNALIST ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA

09. 06. 2014 (Tanjug, Blic) - The organizer of the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Georgian Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, was sentenced today in Moscow to life in prison, as was the direct perpetrator Rustam Makhmudov from Chechnya. Collaborator in the murder, former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and brothers Imrahim and Gabriel Mahmudov to 12 and 14 years respectively.

Previously, former head of the Moscow police Dmitry Pavlyuchenko was sentenced to 11 years in prison for organizing the journalist's surveillance which preceded the attack on her.

Politkovskaya was murdered on 7 October, 2006 in Moscow, at the entrance to the building where she lived.

She wrote for "Novaya Gazeta" about the war in Chechnya and was a known campaigner for human rights. There is a public perception that her murder was politically motivated.

One of the assembly halls at the European Parliament in Brussels is named after her.