Sitting down does not mean serving time: why the organizer of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya was released

It’s time to change the pardon law

Former Interior Ministry employee Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, convicted of organizing the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, has been pardoned. Now he is participating in a special military operation. His lawyer reported this.

The news wasn’t too surprising. After all, he is not the first, and he is not the last. Recently, many have swapped prison bunks for field conditions, and their uniforms for camouflage. But for the journalistic community, the release of the Khadzhikurbans is another blow to the gut.

Moreover, this news was announced as if on purpose immediately after the Day of the Fight against Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. “Noted”, so to speak…

Only one high-profile murder of a journalist in recent years has resulted in a conviction – the case of the death of Anna Politkovskaya. True, there were no customers in the dock. No one. There were only performers and those who helped them. Among the latter is ex-operative officer of the ethnic department of the RUBOP (there was once a regional department for combating organized crime within the Ministry of Internal Affairs) Sergei Khadzhikurbanov.

He did not spy on the journalist, did not pull the trigger of the gun in the elevator of her building (there were four shots, including a control shot in the head). He simply, according to investigators, brought together some people (who received an “order” from those interested in Politkovskaya’s death) with others (those who could help them). For this he was charged with organizing a crime. Fellow journalists who attended the trial are convinced that Khadzhikurbanov was not an organizer, but he was very knowledgeable, knew about the impending crime, could have prevented it, but instead he helped. That is, he made his bloody contribution.

However, a sentence of 20 years might seem too harsh a punishment given his insignificant role. But then we thought that the authorities were thereby showing that any form of complicity in the murder of a journalist would be punished to the maximum. “Well, since the customers were not involved, then at least the rest received long sentences,” we thought.

But receiving a huge sentence does not mean serving it. And here’s the news: Khadzhikurbanov, who was supposed to be released in 2034, is already free.

No one asked either the relatives of the deceased Anna or her colleagues: were they against such an “early release” of Khadzhikurbanov? According to the law, however, the consent of the injured party is not required for pardon. But this law was written at a time when there was no SVO.

Nowadays, criminal and judicial practice is changing literally on the fly. Deputies constantly introduce and amend the Criminal Code and other laws, but they ignore the requests of relatives of crime victims to add this small but important point…

Pressure on the media around the world is greater than ever. The journalist is being turned into a servant of someone’s economic and political interests. Those who disagree are put in prison, they are attacked, they are killed. And in this “meat grinder” no one makes allowances for age and gender: the share of dead female journalists has doubled (from 6 to 11%). Perhaps it all started with Anna Politkovskaya…