MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Supreme
Court overturned on Thursday not-guilty verdicts for three men
charged over the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna
Politkovskaya and ordered a retrial.
The Moscow Military District Court acquitted in February
Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, brothers from Chechnya, and
former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov of involvement in
the journalist's murder, one day after the jury unanimously
concluded that prosecutors had failed to prove the defendants'
guilt.
Murad Musayev, Dzhabrail Makhmudov's lawyer, said the
defense would appeal the Supreme Court ruling at the European
Court of Human Rights.
"We expected such a decision, we predicted such an outcome
even at the time of the acquittal. An acquittal in our country
is perceived as an absolute evil that must be fought against,"
Musayev said.
He said the court had absolutely no grounds for
overturning the acquittals.
Dzhabrail Makhmudov, who was released from custody after
the acquittal, said he did not intend to flee from justice and
was only concerned with establishing the truth.
Novaya Gazeta reporter Politkovskaya, who gained
international recognition for her reports of atrocities against
civilians in the troubled Caucasus republic of Chechnya, was
gunned down in an elevator in her Moscow apartment building in
October 2006, in what police described as a contract killing.
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