Murder of Politkovskaya: Russian parliament intends to improve investigation of contracted murders

Read it in Russian

The Russian State Duma is working out amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes aimed at improving investigation of contracted murders. As MP Alexander Lebedev told reporters today, “a reaction to the appalling murder of Anna Politkovskaya will be making constitutional plea bargaining” on grave crimes.

As a REGNUM correspondent reports, the MP explained that at present time persons involved in committing grave crimes cannot use the principle of plea bargaining, which envisages commutation. The MP proposes to spread it to grave crimes. Thus, perpetuator of the crime will have more incentives to inform the investigation about contractor of the crime and can count for easing the punishment right up to conditional sentence.

According to Lebedev, the draft law “can be an active instrument in investigating contracted murders.” He says that the draft law needs to be elaborated for several weeks, but it can be adopted by December.

It is worth mentioning, prominent Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya was killed on October 7. Yesterday she was buried at Troekurovo Cemetery. Being in Dresden on October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “Whoever it did and on whatever reason, the crime should be punished.”

At the same time, Putin noted that “Politkovskaya’s influence on politics in Russia was minimal.”