23:14, 24 January 2007

PACE demands from Russia to run a parliamentary investigation of Politkovskaya's murder

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is going to call both Chambers of the Federal Assembly of Russia to hold an independent inquiry into the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in October 2006. This provision is contained in the resolution draft that the Chamber is planning to consider at its sitting on Thursday.

The resolution draft condemns Politkovskaya's murder in Russia and assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in Turkey and also recent violent attacks on journalists in Azerbaijan, Moldova, Ukraine, France, Croatia and some other countries of Europe.

The PACE recommends setting up "a special monitoring mechanism for revealing and studying attempts on life of European journalists and on their freedom of expression," the "Interfax" reports.

We remind you that Anna Politkovskaya, journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper, murdered on October 7 in Moscow, was known first of all for her materials on Chechnya and North Caucasus.