Three cleared of murdering Russian journalist

Three men were cleared of murdering Russian investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya today in an embarrassing defeat for state prosecutors.

The unanimous not-guilty verdicts came in a trial compromised from the start by the absence of the suspected gunman and any alleged mastermind behind the politically charged October 2006 killing. Prosecutors said they would appeal.

The judge said the defendants were free to go, and they burst out of a courtroom cage and embraced relatives.

Ethnic Chechen brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov and a former Moscow police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, were accused of helping organise and arrange Ms Politkovskaya’s contract-style killing.

All three were charged with murder and could have been imprisoned for life if convicted.