A Moscow court opened a new trial Wednesday for three suspects in the
murder of investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Anna
Politkovskaya, but then quickly adjourned proceedings until Friday.
Lawyers
for the slain journalist's family called for an entirely new
investigation into the murder, and termed the previous probe
incomplete.
In June, Russia's Supreme Court overturned a
February jury verdict acquitting the three - Chechen brothers Dzhabrail
and Ibragim Makhmudov and former security police officer Sergei
Khadzhikurbanov - of helping organize the murder. The jury had cited
insufficient evidence as grounds for the decision.
Politkovskaya
researched and wrote extensively about rights abuses in Chechnya. She
was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.
Colleagues say Politkovskaya's reporting on atrocities in Chechnya angered the Kremlin, while earning her international acclaim.
Last
month's killing of a colleague, Natalya Estemirova, places the
Politkovskaya case under renewed scrutiny. Authorities found the body
of the acclaimed rights campaigner, who worked alongside Politkovskaya,
just hours after she was abducted. She was shot in the head and chest.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
