21 February 2009, 05:00
Court returns Politkovskaya's case to reinvestigation
The Moscow Regional Military Court has returned the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", back to the Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office (ICPO) of the Russian Federation for reinvestigation.
"Since the jurymen have concluded that Makhmudov brothers and Sergey Hadzhikurbanov had nothing to do with the crime, the criminal case is subject to return to the ICPO with the aim to search real culprits and customers," the "Interfax" quotes Judge Evgeniy Zubov as saying.
Right after the end of the session, first official comments were made by the prosecution party. According to the officials of the State Office of Public Prosecutor, pretty plenty of violations had been made in the course of the proceedings.
Meanwhile, the defendants' advocates have addressed, via media, straight to the General Public Prosecutor with a request: "Find courage to admit your mistakes, don't try to save this deadborn indictment," Channel One television reports.
According to advocate Murad Musaev, now everybody, including the state accusation, understands that case was "not investigated, but just compiled."
