MOSCOW, August 24 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s Investigation Committee will apply for arrest of a suspect in the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
“Today, the Investigation Committee plans to apply to the court for arrest of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov [a former police colonel],” the committee’s spokesman, Vladimir Markin, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
“Moreover, I should say that investigators have the information about a suspected mastermind behind the murder. However, investigators consider it premature to disclose this information,” he said.
Russia’s Investigation Committee (SK) will ask a court to sanction the arrest of former police Lt-Col Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, suspected of masterminding the murder of Novaya Gazeta observer Anna Politkovskaya.
“Today, the Investigation Committee intends to forward a petition to the court requesting Pavlyuchenkov’s arrest,” SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.
The investigators also have information about the person who had shopped a contract on the journalist.
“It should be noted that the entire picture of the crime was established through investigation. I should say the investigators also have information about the person who ordered the crime, but they believe it is premature to commit this information to the mass media,” Markin underlined.
He noted that the SK had detained former police Lieutenant-Colonel Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, suspected of masterminding the crime.
“The investigators ascertained that Pavlyuchenkov got an order to organize the murder of Politkovskaya for remuneration, and set up a criminal group, recruiting three Makhmudov brothers and other persons,” the spokesman said.
Pavlyuchenkov, as unit head for surveillance at office # 4 at Moscow’s operations/search department, ordered his subordinates to monitor the journalist to find out her daily routes in the city.
“He later purchased weapons, worked out a plan, and assigned a role to each of his accomplices in preparing and perpetrating the murder.
“The information obtained by Pavlyuchenkov and the weapon of murder were passed to perpetrator Rustam Makhmudov and his accomplices, who had been tailing Anna Politkovskaya several days before the crime,” Markin said.