Four Charged Over Killing of Politkovskaya

Russian investigators yesterday charged four men in connection with the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, adding that the preliminary inquiry into her death was now over.

They said they had charged three men with involvement in the killing of Politkovskaya, who was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment in October 2006, and an officer from the Federal Security Service (FSB) - Russia's post-KGB spy agency - with extortion and abuse of office. All four have been in prison since August.

The investigators have apparently been unable to identify who ordered Politkovskaya's killing. Officials have publicly accused a Chechen, Rustam Makhmudov, 34, as being the hit man. He has eluded arrest, with investigators saying he may have fled abroad. Two of those charged yesterday are Makhmudov's brothers - Dzhabrail and Ibragim, also from Chechnya. The third suspect, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, is a police officer.

The fourth man, Pavel Ryaguzov, a lieutenant colonel in the FSB, was charged in relation to other crimes. Officials have previously accused him of supplying the killers with Politkovskaya's address and other details. Yesterday Politkovskaya's colleagues at Novaya Gazeta, the small liberal newspaper where she worked, said they were skeptical that the investigation had got to the bottom of her murder.

"Only part of the case is over," the paper's chief editor, Sergei Sokolov, said. "We need to wait for a court case until we can judge anyone's guilt."

Politkovskaya, 48, was shot dead in the lift to her apartment block. A young man was captured on CCTV trailing her in a supermarket. He shot her twice in the chest before administering a coup de grace to the head. Her murder was linked to her reporting from Chechnya, where she wrote about human rights abuses by Russian and Chechen forces during two Kremlin wars, and to her fearless criticism of Vladimir Putin's regime.

Nine people were arrested last year in connection with her death. Officials have released five suspects, allegedly due to lack of evidence. The investigators confirmed they were dropping charges against one of those released, Shamil Burayev, a regional Chechen official.