Russia was yesterday urged to find the real killers of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya after the “total failure” of a three-month trial that saw all four suspects acquitted and freed.
A jury earlier acquitted the four men, none of whom had been charged with shooting dead the reporter, let alone ordering the apparent contract killing.
The judge in the trial ordered investigators to resume their probe into the case, which rights lawyers and activists have said has shown the impunity with which contract killers are allowed to operate in Russia.
“Examination of the investigation and prosecution of the murder of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya ended yesterday in total failure,” the respected opposition daily Kommersant said in its front-page report.
The centrist daily Vremya Novostei added: “We need the real killer.”
Politkovskaya, who had been highly critical of Russia’s strongman and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was shot dead in the lift of her Moscow apartment building on Oct. 7, 2006, after returning from a shopping trip.
“The Politkovskaya verdict tops the long history of inability of Russia’s authorities to provide safety to embattled journalists,” said Miklos Haraszti, media representative for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“This amounts to a practical impunity for the murder and physical assault of those covering corruption and human rights issues,” he added.
Highlighting the international interest in solving the killing of one of the few Russian reporters prepared to criticize the authorities, the US swiftly called on Russia to continue the investigation.
“We regret that her murder is remaining unsolved,” US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said. “We urge the Russians to try and find those who are responsible and bring them to justice as quickly as possible.”
A French foreign ministry spokesman said it was essential that her killers be caught as the “Russian people have a right to the truth.”
Her family also criticized the verdicts.
“I think that all four of them are linked to the murder of my mother in one way or another,” Politkovskaya’s son Ilya Politkovsky told reporters alongside his sister Vera.
Rights groups had long lamented the shortcomings of trial, which despite lasting three months failed to shed any significant light on the circumstances of the killing.
During the hearings the defense team pointed out that the suspects’ DNA had not been found on the weapon and that phone calls made by the accused at the time did not prove their presence at the murder scene.
International press watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the trial had been marked by “incoherence and opacity” from the outset.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was “disheartened by the continued impunity” in the case.
“No prosecution will be complete until the triggerman and mastermind are in the dock,” the CPJ said.
In a final procedural hearing yesterday at the inconclusive trial, Judge Yevgeny Zubov ordered the prosecutors’ investigative committee to resume their probe to find “the individuals linked to the committing of this crime.”
All four suspects had been acquitted by the jury after Thursday’s hearing: Chechen brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov had been accused of driving the killer to the scene of the murder of the Kremlin critic.
Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police investigator, had been charged with providing logistical assistance for the murder. Pavel Ryaguzov, a former agent of the FSB security service, had not been directly accused of being part of the murder, but of extortion in another aspect of the case.
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
POINTING FINGERS: The two countries have accused each other of firing first, with Bangkok accusing Phnom Penh of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital Thai acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai yesterday warned that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people “could develop into war,” as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day. A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis yesterday. A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported that one civilian — a 70-year-old man — had been killed and