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Russia top court reviewing judge in journalist murder trial

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Russia's Supreme Court has decided to review the actions of a Moscow District Military Court judge presiding over the trial of three men accused in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, according to a court spokesman quoted in local media reports Sunday. Judge Yevgeny Zubov on Wednesday ordered the proceedings to be closed to the public citing alleged jury objections to allowing reporters in the courtroom, but the claim was denied in a Thursday statement by one of the jurors on Ekho Moskvy radio. The judge had previously ordered that the trial be open. Also on Thursday, the judge postponed the trial until December 1, citing scheduling conflicts for defense lawyers, but they have also denied having conflicts and are moving to have the proceedings reopened in light of the juror's statement. All three men in the case have pleaded not guilty. Sergey Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, all from Chechnya, were arrested in August 2007. The main suspect, Rustam Makhmudov, also from Chechnya, has yet to be captured, but Russian authorities have said he is hiding in Western Europe. Closed preliminary hearings in the case began last month. Politkovskaya, a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta widely known for her stories about human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya, was murdered after returning to her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on November 23, 2008 (boomark / email).