Russia Murder Case
June 25, 2009
A jury in February had ruled that the brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, were not guilty of being accessories to the murder and also cleared former police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, of organizing the crime. The brothers had been accused of driving the killer to the scene and the policeman of providing logistical assistance.
A fourth defendant, Pavel Ryaguzov, a secret police agent, was acquitted in a separate trial for allegedly providing the killer with Politkovskaya's address.
Despite lasting almost four months, the original trial failed to shed any significant light on the circumstances of the killing.
The gunman, who actually shot Politkovskaya in the lobby of her central Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006, has not been apprehended.
Rights groups have long criticized Russia's failure to bring to justice the person, or persons, responsible for the death of Politkovskaya.
The new Supreme Court ruling means the verdict of the Moscow district military court has been annulled and the criminal case referred back to the same court for a new hearing.
Lawyers for the Politkovskaya family said they did not agree with the case being thrown out, or with the order for a retrial, because the men charged had not been the real perpetrators of the crime.
"I think there should not be a repeat trial. The case should be sent by the court for additional investigation," Politkovskaya's son Ilya said.
Politkovskaya, who had been an award-winning investigative journalist for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, wrote dozens of articles on human rights abuses in Russia and published a book called "Putin's Russia."
In that book, she accused the former president and current prime minister, Vladimir Putin, of using the Chechen conflict to strangle democracy, while detailing horrific rights abuses in Chechnya.
Her murder triggered an outcry in the international community and raised serious concerns about a surge in crackdowns against people critical of the Kremlin and Putin.
gb/dpa/AP/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar