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 PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS