18:49, 24 February 2014

Witness Pavlyuchenkov identifies one of figurants in Politkovskaya's murder case

At the opening ceremony of Anna Politkovskaya memorial . Moscow, October 7, 2013. Photo by Yulia Buslavskaya for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

A former employee of the Moscow militia Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov said during the session of the Moscow City Court (MCC) that he had recognized one of the defendants, Rustam Makhmudov, in the video presented by the defence.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the retired Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov was detained on August 23, 2011, on suspicion of organizing the murder of Anna Politkovskaya; then, made a deal with the investigation, and ceased to be the organizer of the crime – under the new version of investigators, he organized surveillance of the journalist and bought a pistol for the murder.

Pavlyuchenkov was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was questioned by the court on February 17 and repeated his earlier testimony about the preparation for the crime, suggesting that the defendants were involved in the murder of the journalist.

On Monday, Pavlyuchenkov said that on one of the videos submitted by the prosecution as evidence, he recognized Rustam Makhmudov, the alleged killer of the journalist.