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MOSCOW : Three years after the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, hundreds attended a demonstration in her memory in central Moscow Wednesday, with the assassin and mastermind of the murder still at large.
Around 500 people, including liberal politicians, popular cultural figures and Politkovskaya's daughter Vera took part in the officially approved demonstration at 4:03 pm (1203 GMT), the exact time when Politkovskaya was shot outside her apartment building on October 7, 2006.
In a heavy show of security, supporters passed through metal detectors and police and anti-riot police were posted around the perimeter.
The demonstration was only allowed for 300 people, speakers said. At least 100 more stood outside the barriers.
Organizers gave out carnations and posters of Politkovskaya reading "The killers are still at liberty."
Human rights campaigner and journalist Alexander Podrabinek emerged from hiding to give a speech. Pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi is picketing his apartment block after he wrote an article critical of Soviet war veterans.
"Today we are forcefully being returned to the Soviet Union," Podrabinek said.
Among the other speakers were human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva and opposition politicians ex-cabinet minister Boris Nemtsov and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov.
"Under this regime, it's impossible to uncover the murder of Anna Politkovskaya," Kasyanov said.
Alexeyeva warned that other journalists could meet Politkovskaya's fate. "We could find ourselves standing with the same posters, only with different photographs," she said.
A Kremlin spokeswoman declined to comment, when asked to make a statement on Politkovskaya?s anniversary Wednesday. The day is also Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's birthday.
Human rights organizations including Russia's Memorial and the international Reporters Without Borders issued a joint statement saying that Politkovskaya's murder "set in motion a new series of political killings."
The demonstrations come a day after Politkovskaya's supporters announced that investigators have identified new suspects in the long-running case, which has so far failed to pinpoint the mastermind behind the killing.
Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, told journalists Tuesday that investigators have unearthed possible new suspects. Sokolov also said that the suspected killer, Rustam Makhmudov, was on the run in a European Union country.
"Three years from the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the mastermind and killer are still at liberty," the newspaper said.
But Sokolov described as "rubbish" Wednesday an unconfirmed report in tabloid Tvoi Den that a former police officer had confessed he was ordered to tail Politkovskaya before her death.
Anna Stavitskaya, a lawyer representing Politkovskaya's family, told AFP that she had "no information" on new suspects. "I can only discuss it if I see official documents saying that someone is charged," she said.
Makhmudov's brothers, Ibragim and Dzhabrail, and former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov are on trial for involvement in the murder in a complex legal saga.
All three were acquitted on lack of evidence in an initial trial, but the verdict was later overturned. Shortly after the case reopened in August, the supreme court returned it to the prosecutors for further investigation.
Stavitskaya said she could not comment on the investigation. "At least I will put in every effort in order for us to achieve success," she said.
- AFP /ls
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