Former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, acquitted last year in connection with the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been charged a second time, Interfax reported Friday.
But Khadzhikurbanov’s lawyer said the new charges were identical to the initial ones and called them an attempt to convince the public that the investigation has not stalled on the fourth anniversary of Politkovskaya’s death, which occurred Thursday.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported earlier in the week that police have linked Khadzhikurbanov, who is currently serving an eight-year term for extortion, to an underground workshop that produced the gun used to shoot Politkovskaya.
Police think that Khadzhikurbanov was a middleman in the 2006 contract hit on Politkovskaya, carried out at the request of unidentified people irked by her publications, Kommersant reported Friday.
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