Presentation of indictment to native of Chechnya Gaitukaev on Politkovskaya's murder case postponed

The entrepreneur from Chechnya Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, who was planned to face indictment today of complicity in the murder of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya, has rejected his appointed advocate; therefore, presentation of indictment was postponed indefinitely.

Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, born in 1958, was arrested in 1992 for operations with the so-called "Chechen Letters of Advice (LAs)" (frauds with the use of fake payment documents – swindlers agreed with a bank employee that he issued a false LA to a certain amount and sent it to the Central Bank or one of "special banks". Since the "match" of documents at banks was not immediate, swindlers had enough time to spend or hide the stolen money. There is data that in Russia more than 4 trillion roubles were received by false LAs) and sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2007, he was arrested on charges of organizing an attempt on the Ukrainian businessman G. Korban; in February 2008, he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment.

Gaitukaev is an uncle of the Makhmudov brothers, suspected of involvement in the murder of Politkovskaya, but acquitted by a jury in February 2009 for lack of proof. According to the data of the investigation, obtained this September, Lom-Ali Gaitukaev acted as the organizer of Anna Politkovskaya's murder.

It was assumed that he would be charged under points "b", "g" and "h", Part 2, Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code (a murder committed by a hired organized group).

It was also planned to present a charge of complicity in the murder to Sergey Khadjikurbanov, born in 1967, a former agent of the Russian MIA's Department for Fighting Organized Crime (known as UBOP). In early 2000s, Khadjikurbanov worked in the Eighth Division of the Central Regional Directorate of the UBOP at the MIA's Chief UBOP, where he dealt with ethnic criminal groupings.

In 2004, Khadjikurbanov was sentenced to four years for abuse of power, but after revision of his sentence was released in September 2006. In August 2007, Khadjikurbanov was arrested on suspicion of organizing the murder of Anna Politkovskaya; however, in February 2009 he was acquitted by the jury, but re-arrested on racketeering charges and convicted in 2010 to 10 years of imprisonment.

Sergey Sokolov, deputy editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta", where Politkovskaya had worked, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that bring new charges against Gaitukaev and Khadjikurbanov was possible, because another suspect – the former militia lieutenant colonel Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov – agreed to conclude a deal with the investigation.

Dmitri Pavlyuchenkov (born in 1968), who held in 2007-2008 senior positions in the Operative-Search Department of the Moscow GUVD (Chief Interior Department), was, after his retirement, the main prosecution witness at the first trial on Politkovskaya's murder. On August 22 this year, Pavlyuchenkov was detained as a suspect of organizing the above murder.