‘Killers’ facing new trial after Moscow farce

The alleged killers were acquitted by a Moscow jury in February after a trial critics described as farcical.

Politkovskaya, 48, was shot dead in the entrance hall of her apartment building in Moscow in 2006. She had written a series of exposés on human rights abuses and corruption in Chechnya and was a fierce opponent of then Russian president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin.

A Moscow jury acquitted the defendants — two Chechen brothers and a former policeman — after a trial that Politkovskaya's supporters said was undermined by prosecution errors. The prosecutors appealed, accusing the judge of making numerous procedural errors.

The Supreme Court today agreed there had been a violation of procedural rules. The court ordered a new jury trial. Not guilty verdicts are often reversed by Russia's higher courts.

All three defendants were accused of playing minor roles in the death of Politkovskaya, who worked for Novaya Gazeta, the independent newspaper owned by Alexander Lebedev, now also proprietor of the Evening Standard. Three journalists and a lawyer working for Novaya Gazeta have been murdered since 2003.

Prosecutors never explained who might have ordered the suspected contract killing, and the suspected gunman remains at large.

After a four-month trial, a jury ruled in February that brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov were not guilty of acting as accomplices in the murder and cleared former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov of organising the crime.

Karinna Moskalenko, who represents Ms Politkovskaya's family, said it was important for the investigators to do a better job making their case the second time around.

"We have hope," she said. "What they did before was unsatisfactory. The children still have hope."

Defence lawyer Murad Musayev said he had expected today's decision.

"I'm convinced that if a new court is able to look at the process objectively and properly then our arguments will again be upheld," he said.

Politkovskaya's killing deepened international concerns about the risks journalists and Kremlin critics face in Russia, and added to strains in relations with the West.