© AFP
A file picture taken on October 16, 2002 , shows investigative journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya
A Moscow city court jury has found five men guilty of taking part in the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. One of the convicted men, a nephew of a Chechen crime lord, was named the reporter's killer.
The jury on Tuesday announced a guilty verdict for three Chechen brothers, Rustam, Ibragim and Dzhabrail Mahmudovs, their uncle Lom-Ali Gaytukayev and the ex-police officer Sergey Khadjikurbanov.
The panel also decided that the investigation presented convincing evidence of Rustam Mahmudov's role as the actual killer in the 2006 murder.
None of the suspects have pleaded guilty. Mahmudov has claimed that neither him, nor his brothers were complicit in the murder, while Khadjikurbanov has asserted that he was slandered by another figure in the case, ex-police colonel Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who earlier struck a deal with the investigation. Pavlyuchenkov, who was initially suspected of organizing the murder, was sentenced to 11 years in jail and was also obliged to pay nearly $100,000 in damages to Politkovskaya's family.
Gaytukayev, on the other hand, is already serving a 2008-imposed 15 year jail sentence for organizing a separate contract killing. He had become known as a crime boss for carrying out large-scale fraud in the early 1990-s, known as "Chechen letters of advice."
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