Four men on trial over murder of Russian journalist

FOUR men went on trial yesterday in connection with the murder of Russian journalist and outspoken Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, despite the failure of the authorities to catch the masterminds.

The four have been charged with helping organise the October 2006 shooting of Politovskaya at her apartment block in central Moscow.

In a victory for Politkovskaya’s lawyers who had feared the process could be held in secret, the judge of the military court ruled the trial should be held in open court.

“I reject the request of the prosecutors that the trial should proceed behind closed doors. But I will close the trial if there is pressure on the jurors,” Judge Zubov said.

One of the lawyers for Politkovskaya’s family, Karinna Moskalenko, welcomed the move: “I did not expect this decision would be taken. With this judge there is the chance of a fair trial,” she said.

The slain journalist’s family and supporters have long expressed scepticism over the legal process and complained none of the defendants being tried is charged with the actual killing.

Politkovskaya wrote books and articles that fiercely criticised Russia’s prime minister Vladimir Putin, notably for abuses committed by Russian forces during the second Chechen war, which he oversaw as president.

More than two years after Politkovskaya was shot dead on October 7, 2006, the authorities have failed to arrest the hit man who pulled the trigger or those who ultimately ordered the murder.

One of the suspects on trial is a former agent of the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, who is suspected of providing Politkovskaya’s home address to the killer.

Two of the other defendants, are Chechen brothers accused of following her. They are brothers of Rustam Makhmudov — the man said by investigators to have actually shot Politkovskaya in the stairwell of her apartment block. He has never been found and is said to have fled the country.

The fourth defendant is a former police investigator from Moscow police’s organised crime unit.

The masterminds of the presumed contract killing have never even been identified, despite a statement by then-president Putin that the murder “cannot go unpunished”.