MOSCOW, March 14 (Itar-Tass) – The Russian Supreme Court upheld a verdict to former head of a unit of the 4th search department of the Moscow main police department Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who is the first convict in the criminal case over the murder of Novaya Gazeta editorial writer Anna Politkovskaya. Thus, the court turned down an appeal from the lawyer and the injured parties.
Under the law, the verdict will enter into legal force on Thursday.
“The verdict of the Moscow City Court is upheld, the cassation appeals of the lawyer and the injured parties are not satisfied,” the Russian Supreme Court said in the court ruling.
Before the court session Pavlyuchenkov was feeling bad. After the called medic of the Federal Penitentiary Service has made an injection to him, he could participate in the trial, but to the demand of the court to stand up for saying his name, the convict failed to stand up and replied sitting in the dock.
The court asked the press and other members of the audience to leave the court session, holding the court session behind the closed doors. However, later the judges satisfied the request from the injured parties to try the appeal in the mode open for the press.
At the court session the litigating parties confirmed their positions stated before. So, the injured parties asked to cancel the verdict over a too lenient sentence, in their view. They also found the terms of the bargain concluded between Pavlyuchenkov and investigators unfulfilled.
On the contrary, the lawyer insisted that the punishment be too severe. According to lawyer of the convict Karen Nersesyan, the court did not take into account the aid of his client in solving this crime, as well as other high-profile criminal cases. Meanwhile, Pavlyuchenkov’s state of health was not also given a proper attention to, as the convict suffers from epileptic outbreaks.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor Gulchekhra Ibragimova stated that the verdict of the Moscow City Court is lawful and grounded, and the appeals of the litigating parties cannot be satisfied.
Pavlyuchenkov stated that he “does not realize why everybody is against him”, as he helped to solve the crime.
After the court session lawyer of the injured parties Anna Stavitskaya stated that she will address in the European Court of Human Rights.
“We will compulsorily mention this in an addendum to an appeal in the European Court,” she said. Stavitskaya noted that the Thursday court ruling “was predictable, and we were almost completely confident that it will be so.”
“We will appeal the verdict in the court of appeal,” Pavlyuchenkov’s lawyer said.
On December 14, 2012, the Moscow City Court sentenced Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov to 11 years in prison. Under the court verdict pronounced by Judge Alexander Zamashnyuk, the former police officer is to serve the sentence in a tough security penitentiary.
Pavlyuchenkov was found guilty of murder as a member of the organized criminal group and illegal storage of weapons. The criminal case was tried in the special court proceedings, because the former policeman pleaded guilty and concluded the pre-trial agreement on cooperation with the investigation. In this case the defendant cannot be sentenced to more than two thirds of the maximum sentence under the law.
Editorial writer of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper Anna Politkovskaya was killed on October 7, 2006 at the entrance of the residential house, where she lived in Lesnaya Street. Five gunshots were made in her. The killer went out from the entrance of the house, got in his VAZ-21043 car at the metro station Novoslobodskaya and escaped together with his accomplices.