Court refuses to release person involved in Politkovskaya's murder

Today, a court in Ryazan has refused to satisfy a petition for the conditional early relief (CER) of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), convicted of involvement in the murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the court has reported. The defence will appeal against this judgement.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 14, 2012, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The former policeman confessed to his involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and made a deal with investigators.

His defence filed a CER petition in February 2019. Today, the Moskovsky District Court of Ryazan has ruled to leave Pavlyuchenkov to serve the rest of his term in colony.

The defence intends to appeal against the ruling. "Of course, we'll appeal against it. The man is sick; he has constant epileptic seizures; he is almost all the time kept in the medical unit," the TASS quotes today Anatoly Voroshilov, Pavlyuchenkov's advocate, as saying.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 8, 2019 at 04:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.