Politkovskaya Murder Suspects to Seek Jury Trial

File Photo of Mourners with Photo of Anna Politkovskaya

MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) – The people accused of murdering Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya will ask for a jury trial.

“We will certainly make a motion for a trial by jury. Legislation allows us to do so,” Alexei Mikhalchik, a defense lawyer for one of the suspects, told Interfax.

According to the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, a request for a jury trial cannot be rejected if the case in question can be tried by a jury, or if at least one of the defendants has asked for a jury trial.

Some of these suspects were previously acquitted of killing Politkovskaya by a jury at the Moscow District Military Court. Other suspects have been detained since then, including Rustam Makhmudov, who is accused of pulling the trigger. Apart from that, former police officer Dmitry
Pavlyuchenkov, who acted as a witness in the previous trial, admitted his involvement in Politkovskaya’s murder.

These five suspects “have a good chance of being acquitted,” Mikhalchik said.

Pavlyuchenkov could receive a guilty verdict because a decision was made to handle his case separately after he agreed to cooperate with the investigation, the lawyer said.

If Pavlyuchenkov is convicted, it could help prove the guilt of the other defendants, “but even in this case the guilt of each suspect will be established individually,” he said.

“It is a kind of PR move, an instrument for psychological pressure. I think that the prosecutor will try to use Pavlyuchenkov’s conviction as a piece of evidence. But we will object to it,” Mikhalchik said.

The Russian Investigative Committee has collected sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of five suspects accused of murdering Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
“Investigators have collected sufficient evidence to compile an indictment. And they have announced today that a preliminary inquiry has been completed and the suspects, their lawyers and the affected party have been notified,” he told Interfax on Tuesday.

Representatives of the affected party will soon be invited to study the case files, he said.

“An investigation against those who ordered the crime and other as yet unidentified persons continues,” Markin said.

He identified the suspects as the Makhmudov brothers, Rustam, Ibragim and Dzhabrail, Sergei Khadzhiburbanov and Lom-Ali Gaitukayev. Pavlyuchenkov’s case is being investigated separately.

They face charges of murder and the illegal possession of weapons.

“Investigators accuse Gaitukayev of masterminding the crime. It was he who formed an organized group in 2006. It included the other defendants, as well as police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov,” Markin said.

The group members carefully planned Politkovskaya’s murder, acquired weapons and discussed each other’s steps, he said.

“Khadzhikurbanov coordinated the operations of the entire group,” Markin said.

“Having learned the victim’s address from Pavlyuchenkov, the Makhmudov brothers located themselves along her itinerary. After spotting the target behind the wheel of her car, Ibragim Makhmudov informed his brother Dzhabrail, and Dzhabrail told Rustam, who entered the lobby of the apartment building where Politkovskaya lived and waited for her there,” Markin said.

Rustam Makhmudov fired several shots at Politkovskaya after she entered the elevator, he said.

“The weapon was abandoned at the scene. The suspects then fled,” Markin said.

Last week, Politkovskaya’s children, Ilya and Vera, filed an official request for the severance of the deal concluded by Pavlyuchenkov with the investigators.

“We demand the severance of the deal with the investigators and the merger of all criminal cases into one criminal case and, we reiterate, a public trial, after which, if the defendants’ guilt is proven, they all, including Pavlyuchenkov, will be punished in accordance with what they have done, without any lenience,” they said.

Markin said then that he saw no grounds for breaking the pre-trial agreement with former police officer.

Politkovskaya was shot dead in the lobby of her apartment building on Lesnaya Street in central Moscow on October 7, 2006.

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