MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has ruled against a motion filed by former police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who was convicted for the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, to suspend his sentence for health reasons, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Pavlyuchenkov, former head of the Operational Search Department of the Interior Ministry’s Main Department for Moscow, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in a separate trial in December 2012. He agreed to a plea bargain with prosecutors and testified against the other suspects in the case.
The court has now ruled that Pavlyuchenkov can receive medical assistance in a prison hospital.

Pavlyuchenkov has several diseases. A ruling on his motion for a suspended sentence was previously postponed pending a comprehensive medical examination.

On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a crusading reporter with the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was shot and killed at the age of 48 in the elevator of her central Moscow apartment building. The murder has been linked to her coverage of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

In June 2014, the Moscow City Court sentenced Rustam Makhmudov and Lom-Ali Gaitukayev to life in prison. Their accomplices, brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov and former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, were sentenced to 12, 14 and 20 years in a maximum security penal colony, respectively. The court also fined them 5 million rubles ($131,615) payable to the late journalist’s children.

The convicted felons have appealed the ruling, which has yet to be heard.