Man convicted of murdering Russian journalist is pardoned after serving in Ukraine

President Vladimir V. Putin has pardoned one of the convicted organizers of the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in exchange for his services in Ukraine, his lawyer said Tuesday, the latest in a series of such reprieves for high-profile criminals in Russia.

Sergei G. Khadzhikurbanov, a former law enforcement officer who was sentenced in 2014 to 20 years in prison for the 2006 murder of Ms. Politkovskaya, was pardoned in a decree issued by Mr. Putin, said his lawyer, Aleksei V. Mikhalchik. in a telephone interview.

Ms. Politkovskaya, who became one of Russia’s most acclaimed journalists for her uncompromising reporting on human rights abuses during the wars in Chechnya that broke out in the 1990s, was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in central Moscow. Her murder sent shockwaves through Russia and beyond as it highlighted the growing dangers of anti-Kremlin reporting in the country.

The news of Mr. Khajikurbanov’s pardon was the first reported by Baza, a Russian news channel, and RBC, a Russian business magazine. Mr Mikhalchik said he did not know when the decree was signed. Activists said this year that the Russian government had begun a mass campaign to pardon convicts in exchange for the fighting in Ukraine.

Mr Khadzhikurbanov’s pardon follows a series of similar decisions by Russia that highlight the Kremlin’s willingness to release convicted criminals, including murderers and rapists, as long as they help the war effort in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov defended the practice on Friday. “They atone with blood in storm brigades, under bullets and under grenades,” he told reporters, referring to the criminals.

Last week, Alyona V. Popova, a Russian rights activist who has studied similar cases, said reported that a man sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend was pardoned in April due to his military service in Ukraine.

The investigation into Ms. Politkovskaya’s murder took years and was marred by conflicting testimony and retrials. In addition to Mr Khadzhikurbanov, four other men were found guilty of organizing and carrying out the murder. They received sentences of twelve years to life in prison. But the question of who ordered the killing remains unresolved.

In 2018, ruled the European Court of Human Rights that despite the conviction of “a group of men who directly committed the murder,” the Russian state had “failed to take adequate investigative measures to find the person or persons who ordered the murder.”

Mr Khadzhikurbanov was acquitted by a jury in 2009, but he was convicted after a second trial. Mr. Mikhalchik, his lawyer, welcomed the news of the pardon, saying he believed his client was innocent.

“A legal error has been corrected,” Mr. Mikhalchik said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Mikhalchik noted that Mr. Khadzhikurbanov was recruited to serve in army formations in Ukraine in a prison in southern Russia shortly after the 2022 invasion.

Mr. Khadzhikurbanov’s experience in special police units helped him during his service, Mr. Mikhalchik said. After serving the first contract he signed in prison, Mr. Khadzhikurbanov signed another contract as a volunteer, his lawyer said, adding that his client was most likely currently involved in fighting on the front lines and therefore could not be contacted.

Rights activists say the practice of pardoning convicted criminals for serving in Ukraine could have a combustible effect on Russian society.

“It turns out that in order to go unpunished, you have to kill as many people as possible,” Ms. Popova, the rights activist, said in a telephone interview. “It’s a completely inverted pyramid.”