Russia police charge several suspects in journalist murder News
Russia police charge several suspects in journalist murder

[JURIST] Russian authorities have charged at least four of the 10 suspects arrested [JURIST report] Monday in connection with last October's killing [JURIST report] of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive], a defense lawyer told reporters Tuesday. A spokesman from the office of Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika [official website, in Russian] has thus far declined to issue an official statement or identify those arrested. Reuters has more.

Politkovskaya, who had covered the crisis in Chechnya [BBC Q&A] for Novaya Gazeta [media website, in Russian] since 1999, was shot in the head and in the chest after returning to her Moscow apartment building last year. Politkovskaya was a well known critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and authored two books on Chechnya. Immediately following Politkovskaya's death, Putin suggested that the murder was an outside plot to damage Putin's reputation.