Reports that the suspected killer of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been detained brought a mixed reaction on Tuesday.
It was earlier announced that Rustam Makhmudov had been detained in Chechnya and was currently being taken to Moscow.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has confirmed the detention.
Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said Makhmudov would soon be brought to Moscow for questioning.
He said Makhmudov’s arrest was facilitated by law enforcement agencies in Belgium where he had been hiding.
Belgian police stepped up the hunt for Makhmudov after he was put on an international wanted list, forcing him to flee to Chechnya.
A source in law enforcement agencies suggested Makhmudov would most likely be placed at the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention facility.
Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor in chief of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper that Politkovskaya worked for, said the editorial board believed that Rustam Makhmudov was most likely Politkovskaya's killer.
Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights group, said Makhmudov’s arrest would help restart the “deadlocked investigation.”
However, Anna Stavitskaya, a lawyer representing the interests of Politkovskaya's children, said Makhmudov's detention did not mean the crime would be solved.
"The crime will only be solved when its masterminds are found and punished," she said.
She added that it was up to the court to decide on whether Makhmudov was in fact involved in the murder.
Politkovskaya, a fierce Kremlin critic, was shot dead in her apartment block four years ago.
Her murder, like many other killings of reporters and attacks on journalists in Russia in recent years, remains unsolved.
MOSCOW, May 31 (RIA Novosti)
