MCC to enforce 12 witnesses to the trial on Anna Politkovskaya's murder case

At the process held at the Moscow City Court (MCC) on the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, an observer of the "Novaya Gazeta", Judge Pavel Melekhin agreed to issue a compulsory delivery to the court of 12 prosecution witnesses, who do not reside at the place of registration and would not appear at the court to testify.

Let us remind you that five persons are accused of organizing and committing on October 7, 2006, of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, well-known for her articles on Chechnya and Northern Caucasus, namely: Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, a Chechen businessman, whom investigators believe to be the organizer of the crime; his three nephews Rustam, Ibragim and Djabrail Makhmudov; and a former militiaman Sergey Khadjikurbanov. The defendants plead non-guilty.

In the course of the session on August 12, Pavel Korsakov, an operative agent who shadowed Politkovskaya, was questioning in the closed mode. After the session, one of the advocates said that Korsakov had confirmed that he and his colleagues shadowed Politkovskaya. Also, the witness said that usually he received money for such work. However, as he said, in this case he received no money for shadowing Politkovskaya the "Novaya Gazeta" writes.

It should be noted that the trial takes place without the participation of the suffered party, namely, Politkovskaya's children Vera and Ilya, who had been recognized as victims. Earlier, the victims and their representatives said that they refused to participate in the trial, since on July 23 the court selected the jurymen without for their participation.