Man jailed for Politkovskaya killing For six years, friends and family of the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya have waited for investigators to name the person who ordered her killing. Now, a plea bargain deal between one of the accomplices to her murder and federal prosecutors means that this name will probably never be known, say her former colleagues. Dmitry Pavliuchenkov, a former police colonel who admitted to organising the murder, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday. At the time of the murder, he was on active duty as head of the elite OPU police surveillance unit. He admitted helping track Politkovskaya's movements in the days before the killing and providing the assassin with a gun. He was given a reduced sentence in exchange for providing information on other defendants. But Politkovskaya's colleagues say they believe he was allowed to give false testimony about the identity of who ordered the murder. Sergei Sokolov, Politkovskaya's former editor at the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said he was suspicious that the plea bargain appeared to be an attempt by authorities to cover up the identity of the "client" of the assassination-style killing. Politkovskaya, a dedicated investigative journalist whose reporting was highly critical of Russia's authorities, was shot dead in the entrance to her building by a lone man with a silenced modified air pistol in October 2006. Five people, including Pavliuchenkov, were arrested in connection with the killing. "I don't know what the motivations of the law enforcement officials were in reaching this deal, but in fact all it accomplishes is to hide the identity of whoever ordered the murder," said Mr Sokolov. Pavliuchenkov told police in interrogations that the man who hired him for the job was a Chechen hitman named Lom Ali Gaitukayev, currently serving a prison sentence for attempted murder. Pavliuchenkov claimed that Gaitukayev told him the ultimate "client" was the billionaire Boris Berezovsky and the Chechen opposition figure Ahmed Zakayev, two self-exiles living in London. Both Mr Berezovsky and Mr Zakayev have denied any involvement in Politkovskaya's death. Politkovskaya's colleagues say they do not believe Pavliuchenkov's story, which they regard as a politically motivated attempt to deflect blame from the real figures responsible and on to figures who were public enemies of the Kremlin. They also say Pavliuchenkov provided different versions in three separate interrogations. "Of course, Boris Berezovsky is guilty of everything that happens in Russia," said Anna Stavitskaya, a lawyer who represents Politkovskaya's family. Nadezhda Prusenkova, a spokesperson for Novaya Gazeta said: "We oppose the plea bargain because we believe there is a political element in play - that the investigators are consciously manipulating his testimony in exchange for leniency, because the real organiser belongs to the ranks of the untouchables here in Russia." Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the federal investigation committee, defended the plea bargain on Friday. "Pavliuchenkov fulfilled his commitment in naming those known to him who ordered the crime . . . that those who ordered the crime are Zakayev and Berezovsky," he told Interfax news service. The prosecution of suspects in the case has been embarrassing for Russian law enforcement, revealing in lurid detail the tight links between organised crime, police and the security services. Those accused include two former police officials, an officer in the federal security service, three Chechen brothers, one of whom is accused of being the killer, and their uncle, a Chechen gangster.