Police Vow to Punish Politkovskaya's Killers
Iskander Galimov, head of the Interior Ministry's criminal investigation department, said that suspects acquitted in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya last year were guilty and would be brought to justice.
Galimov said: "I give a 100% guarantee that those people were connected to the murder and that their guilt has been proven...They will end up being charged."
Galimov was referring to Chechen brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former Interior Ministry official, who were acquitted by a jury of involvement in Politkovskaya's 2006 murder. The trio were charged with being accessories in the murder, while a third Makhmudov brother, Rustam, is believed to have pulled the trigger. The whereabouts of Rustam Makhmudov are unknown.
However, investigators have not identified the mastermind in the killing of Politkovskaya, a noted Kremlin critic.