Presidential human rights council head praises progress in Politkovskaya murder probe
MOSCOW. Aug 24 (Interfax) - Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the presidential human rights council, expects that investigators will be able to complete the investigation into the murder of prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaya soon.
"This is a matter of honor for our country. They should bring to an end the investigations into the murder of not only Politkovskaya, but also [Memorial human rights center member Natalya] Estemirova and other high-profile crimes," Fedotov told Interfax on Friday.
The Russian Investigative Committee had said earlier that it possessed information as to who could have ordered Politkovskaya's murder and would seek the arrest of former Moscow police official Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov suspected of organizing the assassination.
"The news on progress in investigating Anna Politkovskaya's murder fills us with some hope. If the investigation is proceeding in the right way, then the end and the punishment of those guilty are near," Fedotov said.
"What counts most for me in this case is that the investigators are not twiddling their thumbs. The progress is encouraging. But the most dangerous thing in such cases is fudging with the calculations to make them agree with the result determined beforehand. In this case, innocent people may find themselves behind bars, while those responsible for the murder will remain at large," he said.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said earlier on Wednesday that the investigators possessed information as to who could have ordered Politkovskaya's assassination, but would not make it public for the time being.
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