Secret agent charged over death

A SENIOR officer in Russia's security service is among nine people charged with involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the anti-Kremlin journalist.

The fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, was shot dead in October 2006 in her Moscow apartment building.

Her killing aroused international indignation and led to pressure on Mr Putin to ensure the crime was solved.

Vyacheslav Smirnov, an official of the prosecutor-general's office, yesterday told a Moscow court that "nine people have been charged in the criminal case". Russian news agencies also quoted a source close to the investigation as saying charges had been laid against Lieutenant-Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov, of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, for abuse of office.

He was first arrested in August in connection with another case and his name was also mentioned by investigators working on the Politkovskaya affair.

The FSB agent is alleged to have passed on details of the journalist's address to another suspect, who in turn gave them to the killer.

A team of lawyers hired by Ms Politkovskaya's family also lodged a complaint with a court, saying the investigators looking into the journalist's murder were barring their access to the materials of the case.

Yuri Chaika, the prosecutor-general, announced in August the arrest of ten suspects in the Politkovskaya case. None was charged at the time and some were later released.

Mr Chaika said the killing was masterminded from abroad by anti-Kremlin forces trying to discredit Russia, though he did not offer any proof.

Ms Politkovskaya's newspaper expressed concern when the lead investigator on the case was effectively demoted at the beginning of September.

It claimed Kremlin hardliners were interfering in the case.

Alexander Litvinenko, the former FSB officer who died in London after being poisoned with radioactive Polonium 210, had publicly accused Mr Putin of ordering Ms Politkovskaya's murder.