Moscow City Court leaves three suspects of involvement in Politkovskaya's murder under arrest

The Moscow City Court has rejected the complaints lodged by advocates of the brothers Tamerlan and Ibragim Makhmudovs and Magomed Demelkhanov who asked to release the three convicts in the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta".

The "Interfax" reports that the advocates asked to recognize illegal and cancel the ruling of the Basmanny Court to extend the custody of the three figurants till January 7. The term of investigation was also extended till that date.

During the court session Ibragim Makhmudov's advocate presented documents about his diseases. Besides, the complaint contained references to new circumstances in favour, in the opinion of the defence, of Makhmudov's non-involvement in the crime: results of the forensic-biological examination.

Tamerlan Makhmudov's case was the next on the agenda. Advocate Laura Shabaeva has noted that in October 2006 her client was in his homeland, in the Chechen Republic.

"His alibi is an evidence of his non-involvement in the crime," said the defender, having emphasized that until today the materials presented by the defence in favour of Tamerlan Makhmudov's alibi have not been examined by the investigation. According to Ms Shabaeva, her client is interested in establishment of the truth and wants to continue his study, as he is a fourth-year student of one of Moscow's higher school.

Then, the court started to consider the complaint of Magomed Demilkhanov's advocate. The advocate has stated that not a single procedural action was undertaken with his client during the custody. However, there was one exception: "An inspector came to prison without the advocate but with some expert and took a strand of hair from his head," defender Abdurakhman Shabaev said.

After the session, the advocates have declared that they will appeal against the decisions to higher instances.