Colleagues of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya have dismissed pledges to step up efforts to find her killer after investigators said the inquiry would continue to February 2011.
"How on earth is it possible to have not found Anna's killers after four years? Perhaps political will is missing," said Dmitry Muratov yesterday, editor-in-chief of opposition paper Novaya Gazeta, where Politkovskaya, worked.
About 400 people gathered in central Moscow to mark four years since Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother-of-two who published scathing exposes of political corruption and human rights abuses, was gunned down in her Moscow flat on October 7th, 2006.
On Wednesday, the powerful federal Investigative Committee said the investigation into her killing would go to February 2011 and that more suspects were being considered.
Leading media rights watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, said while investigators gave them some hope, they remained dismayed that neither the gunman nor the person who ordered her killing had been found.
Three men suspected of involvement were acquitted in February 2009 and a new investigation was ordered a year ago.
Her killing was one of the most politically charged in a country considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. “This atmosphere of impunity allows the state to continue its regime of terror,” Oleg Orlov, head of Russian rights group Memorial, told a mostly grey-haired crowd, many wearing large posters of Politkovskaya around their necks and holding roses.
– (Reuters)