25 Jul Investigation of journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s murder failed to find who commissioned her death

In the case of Mazepa and Others v. Russia (application no. 15086/07, 17.07.2018) the European Court of Human Rights held that there had been a violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the investigation into the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

The applicants are the mother, sister and children of the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Ms Politkovskaya was shot and killed in the lift of her Moscow home in October 2006. She was a well-known investigative journalist who covered alleged violations of human rights in Chechnya committed during the second campaign against rebels in the region. She was also a critic of President Vladimir Putin’s politics.

After the investigation, five men, were convicted of the murder in May 2014. The court found that one of the men had accepted an offer for a contract killing from a person who had been unhappy with Ms Politkovskaya’s articles.

Relying on Article 2 (right to life), the applicants complained that the State had not carried out an effective investigation into Ms Politkovskaya’s murder as the authorities had failed to identify who had commissioned and paid for the crime.

The Court emphasised that the investigation had brought tangible results in the conviction of five men directly responsible for the murder. However, an investigation into such a killing could not be considered adequate if no efforts had been made to identify the person who had commissioned the crime and paid for it. The authorities had followed one theory about the instigator of the crime, pointing to a now deceased Russian businessman residing in London, however, they had not explained how they had followed through on that line of enquiry. They should also have explored other possibilities, including those suggested by the applicants. They had alleged the involvement of agents from Russia’s FSB domestic secret service or of the administration of the Chechen Republic.

As this case involved an investigative journalist, the authorities had also had to look for any links between the crime and Ms Politkovskaya’s work. The Court also found that the length of the proceedings had been too long. Thus, there had been a violation of the procedural limb of Article 2.

References from the official website of the European Court of Human Rights