Russia's investigative committee (IC) has announced the preliminary completion of its probe into the murder of opposition journalist Anna Politkovskaya.  It said there are five people who had been charged on in the case, the IC spokesman said: brothers Rustam, Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudovs, Sergey Khadzhikurbanov and Lom-Ali Gaytukaev. They have been charged with murder
 and illegal arms traffic. 

According to investigators, in 2006 Gaytukaev received an order to kill Politkovskaya and created an organized criminal group which included those charged.

The group also included a former policeman from Moscow, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov. He helped the criminals gather information about Politkovskaya: where she lived, where she went, etc. After receiveing all the necessary information from Pavlyuchenkov, the criminals chased after Politkovskaya on October 7, 2006. "When Ibragim Makhmudov saw Politkovskaya approaching her house, he informed his brother Dzhabrail about it, who in his turn told his brother Rustam. He went to her house lobby and waited for her there," the IC said in a statement. 

When the journalist entered the elevator, Rustam Makhmudov shot her 5 times, after that he left the building and drove away," investigators claim.

Anna Politkovskaya was a reporter for opposition paper Novaya Gazeta. She mainly wrote about the human rights abuse in the North Caucasus, mainly in Chechnya.