2 Politkovskaya Suspects Freed

Two of the 10 suspects arrested Monday in the death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya were released today, the AP reports, a move that could indicate the prosecution's case is tenuous. A third person taken into custody in the October murder of Politkovskaya—a sharp critic of the government of Vladimir Putin—was said no longer to be linked to the case.

Politkovskaya, who won kudos abroad for her reporting on violence against civilians by the Russia-back government in the southern republic of Chechnya, was gunned down contract-style in an incident prosecutors say was organized by a Chechen group with information from Russian police. But the release of two policemen reinforced skeptics' charges that the arrests were announced too hastily. (More Anna Politkovskaya stories.)