Russia probes Chechnya link to slain reporter NGO

MOSCOW, Jan 23 (Reuters) Russian prosecutors investigating the murder of reporter Anna Politkovskaya have opened a criminal probe into police officials in Chechnya, a journalists' rights group said today.

Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said he was told of the development at a meeting with a Russian Foreign Ministry official yesterday.

Simon said the Foreign Ministry stressed that the possible involvement of Chechen police was only one of several lines of investigation being pursued.

''We learned from (the Foreign Ministry official) that the Prosecutor-General's office recently informed the Foreign Ministry that it has opened a criminal investigation into several police officials in Chechnya who may be behind the killing of Anna Politkovskaya,'' he told a news conference.

Politkovskaya was a harsh critic of the Kremlin and in particular its conduct in Chechnya, where she alleged officials used abduction and torture in their campaign against separatist insurgents. She was shot dead in Moscow in October.

REUTERS DKA VC1422