SKP does not comment on alleged detention of suspected killers

MOSCOW, November 5 (Itar-Tass) - The Investigations Committee of the
Russian Prosecutor General's Office (SKP) has said it will not comment on
the alleged detention of suspected killers of lawyer Stanislav Markelov
and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasiya Baburova.
"We do not comment this information," SKP spokesman Vladimir Markin
told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
The press service of the Russian Interior Ministry told Tass it had no
such information.
Earlier, SKP chairman Alexander Bastrykin said investigation had made
much progress in the probe into this high-profile murder.
"The investigators have data on the killer, and his detention is a
matter of time," Bastrykin said.
Lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova were shot
and killed on January 19, 2009. An unidentified man in Prechistinka
Street, not far from the Christ the Savior church, shot Markelov, 34, in
the head as the lawyer was returning from a news conference together with
Anastasia Baburova, 25, a fifth-year student of the department of
journalism at the Moscow State University (MGU).
Baburova later died in hospital.
In late October, the brother of the assassinated lawyer said he knew
the names of the killers.
"I was conducting an investigation of my own into the murder of my
brother; as of today, I know for certain who killed my brother, I know the
circle of these people - there are several of them - who were involved in
the crime," Mikhail Markelov, head of the regional branch of the Just
Russia Party, told Russian News Service radio.
"It will be very difficult for them to escape retribution," he added.
According to Markelov, the lawyer's professional activity was the key
motive behind the crime.
"When reporters ask the question regarding the Chechen connection and
so on, I wish to say at once that it has nothing to do with it," he noted.
SKP spokesman Vladimir Markin did not comment on Mikhail Markelov's
statements.