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Suspect in killing of Russian reporter claims investigators asked him to lie – Metro US

Suspect in killing of Russian reporter claims investigators asked him to lie

MOSCOW – A defence lawyer says the alleged organizer of the 2006 murder of Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya claims investigators asked him to falsely incriminate Chechnya’s president or a prominent Kremlin foe.

Lawyer Said Arsanazayev says Sergei Khadzhikurbanov testified in a military court Thursday that he was offered a reduced sentence if he said either Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov or self-exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky was the mastermind behind the killing.

The reporter was shot dead inside her Moscow apartment building.

Kadyrov rules the southern Russian republic with Moscow’s support.

Berezovsky fled to London in 2001 after falling out with the Kremlin.

Politkovskaya angered the Kremlin with her prolific reporting on government abuses in Chechnya.