Russian investigators have marked the fifth anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's murder by announcing that they will file new charges against previously arrested suspects.
Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, a native of Chechnya, is accused of organising the shooting of the investigative journalist who was critical of Vladimir Putin's administration.
New charges against the suspected hitman, Rustam Makhmudov, and several others are expected too.
Makhmudov's two brothers and former Moscow police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov stood trial on charges of helping to stage the killing, but a court found them not guilty in 2009.
The Russian supreme court overruled the acquittal and has sent the case back to prosecutors. Gaitukayev is an uncle of the Makhmudovs.
Politkovskaya was gunned down in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on 7 October 2006.
Investigators also said that Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who was a senior police officer at the time of the killing, helped to track Politkovskaya's movements before she was shot.
The news has been welcomed by Politkovskaya's newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, which is co-owned by Alexander Lebedev, owner of The Independent and London Evening Standard in Britain.
But the paper also lamented the slow progress on finding the person who ordered the killing.
Politkovskaya was killed on Putin's birthday, fuelling speculation about the involvement of senior officials in the Kremlin being responsible.
Source: AP/Washington Post
