Russia: Anna Politkovskaya's murderer pardoned

Former Russian police detective Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, who was convicted in 2014 for his role in the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been granted a pardon after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Khadzhikurbanov was one of five men found guilty in 2014 of the murder of Politkovskaya, a prominent reporter whose critical coverage of the Kremlin appeared in the independent investigative magazine "Novaya Gazeta."

She also denounced alleged abuses by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and wrote a scathing book on Russian President Vladimir Putin's rise to power.

Why has Sergei Khadzhikurbanov been pardoned?

Khadzhikurbanov, a former law enforcement officer, was sentenced to 20 years in jail for organizing Politkovskaya's murder, but has now been officially pardoned after taking advantage of a Russian defense ministry scheme allowing prisoners to sign up from prison to fight in Ukraine as part of what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" (SMO) in return for a pardon.

"As a special forces fighter, [Khadzhikurbanov] was invited to sign a contract to participate in the special military operation," lawyer Alexei Mikhalchik told the French news agency AFP.

"When the contract expired, he was pardoned by presidential decree and is now participating in the SMO as a volunteer soldier, having entered into a contract with the ministry of defense."

Thousands of Russian prisoners are thought to have been sent to fight in Ukraine since Moscow launched its offensive last February, including as part of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, with critics warning some have committed new crimes after returning from the front.

The Kremlin last week acknowledged the use of prisoner recruits to fight in Ukraine and said convicts who "atone for their crime on the battlefield with blood" could be pardoned.

"They are atoning with blood in storm brigades, under bullets and under shells," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

What have Anna Politkovskaya's family said?

In a comment to Russian media, Novaya Gazeta editor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov described Khadzhikurbanov's pardon as a systematic disregard for the rights of the victims by the state.

Politkovskaya's family suspect a political motive and are still demanding a full investigation into the killing.

Speaking to DW about the release of her new book at the Frankfurt Book Fair last month, Politkovskaya's daughter, Vera, said that no-one took her mother's warnings about Putin seriously.

"People who read her works at that time in Russia and the West believed she was greatly exaggerating. But as history has shown, none of it was exaggerated," she said.

"I hope that [she] will be honored somewhere outside Russia. But this I can say with certainty: No one in Russia values her legacy."

mf/lo (AFP, Reuters, dpa)