The chief of the investigative group told to a Novaya Gazeta correspondent about the killer, search for those who organized the murder and about completion of the stage of investigation.
Q: Has the case been passed to the court? What kind of court is it going to be: military, civil or a jury – and when will the trial start?
A: A few days ago we passed the case to the Prosecutor General’s Office for confirming the bill of particulars. It was signed and on 2nd October the case was passed to the Moscow District Military Court. According to the rules, the preliminary court proceeding is to be fixed within 14 days. The court is military as one of the accused – lieutenant colonel Ryaguzov – is and acting FSB officer. The rest of the accused did not object the military justice. Besides, there are a lot of classified documents in the materials of the case.
Q: Does that mean that the trial will be held behind the closed doors?
A: The order of considering the case is defined by the court; this is no prerogative of mine, so I cannot comment on that. As for secret documents, that’s about responses to our requests to FSB and MVD that are responsible, for example for observation service which officers’ names are classified. Of course, most part of those documents relates to Ryaguzov and Khadjikurbanov, who is the former ZRYBOP officer*. Those papers are classified not by investigation; they come to us already being classified. It’s only the agency that classified them or the court that may declassify it. As for me, I must observe the law on the state secret.
Q: Who will get on the bench, and what is the role by those people in the committed crime?
A: As for Anna Politkovskaya’s murder, we are charging three persons at the moment: Jabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, also Sergei Khadjikurbanov. As for other persons, their cases are put on the separate proceedings. And the role by the accused may be described like this. We consider that Khadjikurbanov organized the murder while Makhmudovs brothers were accomplices. One of them watched Politkovskaya and informed the other about her getting around. The other, standing near the crime scene, received the information and passed it to the killer. The killer had come to the block of flats 10 minutes before Politkovskaya and he was waiting for her there.
Q: To my knowledge, the culprits had several casings the joint?
A: There is information about that. I won’t give concrete details, but the video cams fixed the culprits in different days.
Q: So the killer had met Politkovskaya several times?
A: Yes, he had. He was going out, while she was entering the entrance door. He held the door and crossed face to face with Anna.
Q: And what were the motives of those characters – personal or mercenary?
A: I will answer in the way that talking in general the motive of this murder was professional activity of the journalist. And as Anna wrote tough texts about topical matters, then this professional motive was related naturally to the politics. If we speak about the three accused persons, there is no talk about personal motives or opinions. They belong to another category of people. Of course, money was their only motive.
Q: A cynical question: was it an “expensive” murder?
A: The amount paid is not established by investigation. However, it’s clear that killing a journalist of such a level is no cheap thing. Another matter is how that money were distributed and who and where hold the entire sum.
Q: Did the accused confess and did they cooperate with investigation?
A: Can it be that Chechen brothers report on one another? Naturally, they deny any involvement and only answer to general questions, and of course they do not cooperate with investigation. As for Khadjikurbanov, he is an experienced operative officer who would never confess of anything. It’s enough to read the first criminal case he was sentenced with in 2004.
Q: The case that is going to be examined in the court, consists of two episodes. The one is Anna Politkovakaya’s murder, and there is the other one, where Khadjikurbanov and lieutenant colonel Ryaguzov are charged. What’s that second episode about?
A: This is about criminal actions done to a businessman Eduard Ponikarov. That was in 2003. Khadjikurbanov and Ryaguzov came to his office, using a report by a certain Guseinov, and began to blackmail him. Abusing their powers, they put handcuffs on him and Khadjikurbanov began to bash the businessman, demanding that he pay them $10,000. Then they took him to his home, and on the way there Khadjikurbanov beat him again, while Ryaguzov was intimidating him. Then they made up a terrible mess in the Ponikarov’s flat, and then took the victim out, despite the shouts by his wife. He was brought back to the car. The police officers, called by the spouse, stopped the car on the border of Krasnogorsk city, and only then Ponikarov had to be released. Then in 2003 both military prosecutor’s office and one of Moscow district prosecutor’s offices refused starting a criminal case. We have checked the grounds for that refusal, and the deputy prosecutor general Viktor Grin’ canceled that regulation as an illegal one. Ryaguzov will be tried exactly on that count of office abuse and extortion. I could not make Ryaguzov’s case to be separate proceedings, as he did all that jointly with Khadjikurbanov who is also accused on Politkovskaya’s murder.
Q: But many media sources, referring to official information, said that Ryaguzov was also suspected of being involved in Anna Politkovskaya’s murder too.
A: Investigation worked in that direction. Yes, Ryaguzov was suspected of being involved in the murder in question. However, the investigation failed to obtain solid evidence. So the case was stopped against him on the count of Politkovskaya’s murder.
Q: I shall add from myself, not from investigation. Considering that examination is going on, one cannot deny that new facts may get revealed…
A: Well, it’s you to have said that.
Q: Ryaguzov was exculpated on that count. And what about those detained on this case first and then released: Makhmudov the junior, Delemkhanov, Grachev, Isaev, Buraev…?
A: Look. At the beginning of investigation, the operative workers get information about possible involvement in the murder by certain persons. This information comes from examinations, unofficial sources, phone billings… All the persons I detained then were related directly to this group that is going to get on the bench now. They had common business and called one another before and after the murder, and on the day the murder was done etc. When we established the complicity by Makhmudov brothers and Khadjikurbanov – those who used the car on the day of murder, who offered watching Politkovskaya – we took a decision of making arrests. Naturally, we could not allow anyone escaping. We could detain only 3-4 persons then and the rest of culprits could have escaped then. Besides, we had grounded suspicions that all those persons might have been involved in the crime. I had to detain them and to prolong the terms of custody so that to check the degree of their involvement or non-involvement. When we released them I offered apologies to each of the released. Thanks to my superiors, and to the leadership of the prosecutor’s office, that those actions of mine were understood and supported. Yes, checking took me long, but in the final end those innocent did not appear before the court.
Q: Well, in the list of those detained there is Lebedev, the employee from the 5th Department of Moscow GUVD, the man who cannot be called innocent.
A: Over the course of investigation we established that colonel Lebedev abused his office and executed illegal and paid observation of citizens. We forwarded that accusation on him and passed the case to the Investigative department at the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office. As for detention, he was detained by us because we had some information that he had organized shadowing Politkovaskaya. It was established by us that on those days he had been working on Lesnaya Street. Later it turned out that, yes, he really worked on Lesnaya Street about unofficial shadowing, but that was in another city, in the near-Moscow region.
Q: The name of Isaev has also become rather known. A man with this family name has been sentenced recently in Riga for an attempt on hired murder…
A: We arrested Isaev because the car in which the culprits got to the crime place belonged to him. He knew the culprits well and was on the constant phone contact with them. And the person you are talking about, this is his brother Movsar, who also was a good friend of Makhmudovs. He is now serving his term in Latvia; and that’s really about an attempt on murder. We visited Riga and we examined him. Of course, he did not tell anything, though, one may assume that he at least was aware of the murder in preparation, as he was in Moscow then.
Q: One may get a feeling that all those people, acquainted with one another, and having done many crimes, are not so simple and most likely they belong to a serious criminal group.
A: I wouldn’t say it’s all of them to belong to such a group. If we speak of Rustam Makhmudov, who we are sure to be the killer – he has been placed on the wanted file since 1998 for a kidnapping count. The other members of the group of the accused have previous convictions. As for the rest of people in question, this is no organized group. This is just a hastily made team, composed on the basis of the relative’s relations. And the weapon used is a do-it-himself one, made out of a gas-firing gun. The real question is who gave an order to make that temporary group.
Q: So people giving that order, does it seem that they just decided to save money, hiring that kind of stuff?
A: It’s difficult to say for now, as we don’t have enough information. But I’m convinced that the crime was committed in “do-it-as-quick-as-you-can” manner.
Q: But journalists and some employees from the law enforcement bodies mentioned directly the Lazanskaya criminal group and its leader Nukhaev in relation to Anna Politkovskaya’s murder.
A: I would refrain from giving comments, as investigation is going on and it’s too early to make conclusions. I can only say that we really checked possible involvement of certain persons that used to be involved in the Paul Khlebnikov’s case. Hence, the conjecture that appeared in some media. At the time being I cannot either confirm or disprove such a possible relation.
Q: Can one affirm that Anna Politkovskaya’s murder has been solved when there is no killer or the main organizer on the bench?
A: One can, in a functional sense of the word. It is solved as we announce it to be solved and give names. Another matter is that we are working about exposing the entire chain. More persons will be held responsible as we establish and prove their involvement. All that will be done within the framework of separate proceedings about the killer, organizer and other involved persons. As for Khadjikurbanov and Makhmudovs, we cannot procrastinate the investigation about them while looking for others, as the law defines clear terms of pre-trial custody. Those people have committed a crime and their guilt is proved, so let them go to the court.
Q: And what are perspectives of that separate proceedings? How long would it take to finish investigation?
A: We are working actively about that and we are using what we have already got. Of course, something new appears too. But as soon as the proceedings begin on the initial case again – we shall start from zero point. Why? It’s because we might have missed something previously. We shall be restoring in our memory all what we did then and we shall do everything anew: checking phone billings, examination of the witnesses, requests. But this time we shall be doing that considering what we already know. We shall be returning to previously examined people and check whether they can lead us to other persons.
Q: That is, those hurrying you up should get calmed as it is going to be long and laborious work?
A: I will put it like this. Investigation of Khlebnikov’s case has not stopped even for a day. We have been working on it since 2004 and we have established many things and people related to it.
Q: As for the supposed killer Rustam Makhmudov. His photo it is possible to see on the Interpol’s site. Does it mean he is hiding in abroad?
A: I can’t say for sure whether he is hiding in abroad or on the Russian territory. Even if I knew that, I wouldn’t say, as this is the secret of investigation. Wherever he was, he is looked for everywhere. He has been put on the federal and international wanted file on two criminal counts. There a sanction for his arrest wherever he were found.
Q: And what about organizer or organizers? Have you managed to narrow the circle of those suspected?
A: Well, we have suppositions about possible involvements, which is not bad in such a hard case. I cannot narrow this circle and so I check everyone. And the circle itself is not so big to be narrowed – that’s about 2-4 people. Now we are working exactly about the supposed organizers. Everyone must be checked and proved guilty or not guilty, and only then they must go to court and get sentenced.
Q: To my knowledge, it’s the jury that is going to consider the case. The experience of the Khlebnikov’s case and other celebrated cases proves that this institution is not established firmly yet in Russia. The number of scandals about the juries is too much: they are proved to be planted with special services officers, bribed, pressurized… Are there any guarantees that the trial on Anna Politkovskaya’s murder would avoid such problems?
A: There are no guarantees and that’s my nightmare. Unfortunately, besides the problems you mentioned there are other ones: it’s often that the jury members sympathize with the “poor and hurt” defendants, while feeling antipathy towards the law enforcement bodies. And sometimes they use stereotypes and compare the looks and behaviors by the prosecutor and barrister. They are guided with emotions instead of comparing the essence of what is being talked. If this interview will be read by the future jury, I would like to ask them: please listen to both sides attentively, compare the facts, and do not sympathize with anyone; you should just do your job fairly, if you agree to do it. A person is killed, a well-known journalist, and a woman! Don’t let them get you involved in intriguing. I hope we shall get an unbiased verdict by the jury, in the end. I don’t say “accusative verdict”, but I say “unbiased”.
*The central regional (i.e. Moscow) department for struggle with organized crime by the Russian interior ministry.
