The former head of a district in Chechnya has been charged as an accomplice in organizing the execution-style murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, his lawyer said on Friday.
Shamil Burayev, who was detained by police last week as he drove his car in Moscow, was charged with "complicity in murder as an accomplice" by the Prosecutor General, defense lawyer Pyotr Kozakov said.
He gave no further details, but he later told the Interfax news agency that Burayev had maintained his innocence in the face of police interrogation.
"Burayev said he has nothing to do with this crime. This is his clear position and he is determined to prove it and to defend his honest name," Kazakov was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Prosecutors could not be reached for comment late on Friday.
Burayev was the head of Chechnya's Achkoi-Martan district administration for eight years until 2003, when he was sacked by then-Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov. He also ran for president of the region.
Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika has said last year's Oct. 7 murder of Politkovskaya was organized by a Chechen criminal group in Moscow that specialized in contract killings. Among the 10 suspects detained were five law enforcement officers, including an officer with the Federal Security Service, accused of tracking Politkovskaya and providing her killers with information, he said.
Chaika did not name those arrested, but he said Politkovskaya knew the person who ordered the killing and had met with him. The Federal Security Service -- Russia's main security agency -- later identified its arrested officer as Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov.
The tabloid daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported last week that Burayev had been arrested after information emerged during the court case about Ryaguzov's arrest that Ryaguzov had allegedly passed Politkovskaya's address to Burayev.
Earlier on Friday, Chechnya's rights ombudsman cast doubt on reports of Burayev's involvement, saying investigators were stacking their evidence to find a scapegoat from Chechnya.
"The main thing is to claim that Burayev and other Chechens are suspected of organizing the murder of the journalist," Nurdi Nukhazhiyev was quoted by Interfax as saying. "I am convinced that Burayev is neither directly nor indirectly related with Politkovskaya's death."
Politkovskaya's persistent reporting of atrocities against civilians in war-scarred Chechnya had angered the Kremlin and the Kremlin-backed Chechen leadership, but won her international acclaim. Her killing deepened Western concerns about the safety of journalists and government critics in President Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Politkovskaya was the 13th journalist killed in a contract-style killing in Russia since Putin took office in 2000, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said. Nobody has been convicted in any of them.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS