MOSCOW, May 8 (RAPSI) - A court in Ryazan on Wednesday refused to release the former police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who was convicted of organizing the surveillance of journalist Anna Politkovskaya killed in 2006, on parole, a court press secretary told RAPSI.

The Moscow City Court sentenced Pavlyuchenkov to 11 years in prison in a separate trial in December 2012. Ex-policeman fully admitted his guilt. He testified against other suspects in the case and reached a plea bargain with investigators.

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

On May 20, 2014, the jury found five other defendants guilty of murdering Politkovskaya. According to the verdict, the killing was masterminded by Lom-Ali Gaitukayev and former police officer Sergey Khadzhikurbanov. Jurors found that Rustam Makhmudov was the man that actually pulled the trigger.

Rustam Makhmudov and Gaitukayev were sentenced to life in prison or the murder of the journalist. Two other defendants, Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Ibragim Makhmudov, were convicted as accomplices in the crime. Dzhabrail drove Rustam to the scene of the crime, and Ibragim told him that the journalist was approaching her apartment building. Dzhabrail Makhmudov got a 14-year sentence. Ibragim Makhmudov was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Lom-Ali Gaitukayev died in a hospital for inmates in the Volgograd Region in June 2017.