Politkovskaya case: first verdict handed down

Today, as expected, a verdict was handed down to former policeman Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who was accused of murdering Anna Politkovskaya. The court found him guilty of assisting in organizing the murder of a journalist and sentenced him to 11 years in prison in a maximum security colony. The state prosecution asked for 12 years for him. Pavlyuchenkov, who was under house arrest, was taken into custody in the courtroom.

In addition, the Moscow City Court decided to recover three million rubles from the former employee of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in favor of the journalist’s family. On December 12, Politkovskaya’s relatives asked the court for 10 million in compensation for moral damage.

“The fact that Pavlyuchenkov is in prison, and the fact that, as I hope, the Makhmudovs and Gaitukaev will be in prison, is an unconditional victory. The list of perpetrators of the murder has been established largely thanks to Novaya Gazeta. I think that investigator Garibyan did everything that he could do, and everything that he considered safe for himself. In the end, I am rather grateful to Gharibyan. Other people in his place would not have done this either,” Novaya Gazeta political commentator Yulia Latynina told PublicPost. She noted that “this is a huge merit not just of Novaya Gazeta, but personally of our editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov, who took on a significant part of this investigation.”

Sergei Sokolov himself does not agree that the investigation decided to make a deal with Pavlyuchenkov. “I believe that the plea deal should be cancelled. The man who received 11 years of strict regime, knows a lot more than he said, and did not name the most important thing - the traces leading to the customer and the intermediary,” the journalist emphasized in a conversation with PublicPost.

According to Sokolov, during the investigation Pavlyuchenkov named the names of Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakaev as those who ordered the murder. “Obviously, someone liked this version, so the deal was concluded. Although Pavlyuchenkov did not provide any information incriminating Berezovsky and Zakaev to the investigation. Thus, I believe that the deal itself is a huge mistake,” summed up Sergei Sokolov .

Lawyer Karen Nersisyan and former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov (from left to right) . Photo: ITAR-TASS

Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead on October 7, 2006 at the entrance of her house in Moscow. She was known for writing about human rights violations in Chechnya.

There was already a trial in this case in 2008-2009, but then the jury acquitted all the defendants. Now in the case of the murder of Politkovskaya, in addition to Pavlyuchenkov, there are five more defendants: the Makhmudov brothers - Ibragim, Dzhabrail and Rustam, the last of whom, according to investigators, was the direct perpetrator of the murder, as well as Sergei Khadzhikurbanov and Lom-Ali Gaitukaev.

Pavlyuchenkov’s role in the crime, according to investigators, was that he followed Politkovskaya, studied her daily routine, and also bought a weapon. The ex-policeman fully admitted his guilt and made a deal with the investigation. He identified the weapon found at the murder scene. In his last word at the trial, he repented of what he had done and asked for forgiveness from Politkovskaya’s family.