Anna Politkovskaya trial to be open to public
A Russian court has ruled that the trial of the three men accused of involvement in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya will be opened to the public.
A ruling demanding that the case be heard behind closed doors was expected to be passed as some of the documents that may be introduced to the trial are considered secret by the Russian authorities.
However, the preliminary hearing for a Moscow military court made the ruling early today that the trial would be open to the public, after colleagues of Politkovskaya and the defendants in the trial campaigned for it not to be held behind closed doors.
The three defendants are not charged with Ms Politkovskaya’s murder – only of taking part in the plot.
Two Chechen brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, are charged with conducting surveillance on Politkovskaya. Former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov is accused of assisting the two men.
As the suspected killer remains at large, Politkovskaya’s friends and supporters believe there is little likelihood the trial will reveal who was behind her murder.
An earlier hearing in October was overshadowed by the suspected poisoning of Karrina Moskalenko, a prominent human rights lawyer representing Politkovskaya’s son and daughter.
Moskalenko said she had discovered mercury in her car and the incident prevented her from travelling from her home in Strasbourg to Moscow in time for the trial.
Politkovskaya, whose reports on Russia’s breakaway Chechnya region detailing rights abuses angered the Kremlin, was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment in 2006.
The journalist reported corruption and rights abuses during fighting in Chechnya, where Moscow has launched two wars against separatists since 1994. The Russian military has denied charges of systematic abuse in Chechnya.
Her murder is cited by Kremlin critics as a symbol of what they claim has been an erosion of democratic freedoms under former Russian president Putin.
Putin, now Russia’s prime minister, has denied any Kremlin link to the Politkovskaya killing and has ordered a thorough investigation.
– By Oliver Luft and agencies
