At trial on Politkovskaya's witness questioning failed because advocate left

Today, the court that considers the murder of Anna Politkovskaya has adjourned interrogation of four prosecution witnesses because of unauthorized departure of an advocate. The hearing on the case will continue on August 15.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the trial began on July 24; and the defendants pled non-guilty. At the court session on August 6 the lawyer Murad Musaev stated that Anna Politkovskaya had been killed for money by law enforcers, not by the suspected natives of Chechnya. The operative agents who were questioned in court stated their non-involvement in the crime.

At today's session it was planned to question four prosecution witnesses; however, the procedure failed, because one of the defence lawyers left for another trial, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports

Before the break, the court rejected a motion to dismiss Alexei Mikhalchik, the advocate of Sergey Khadjikurbanov, one of the defendants.

The dismissal motion was lodged by the prosecutors Maria Semenenko and Boris Loktionov, who claimed that in 2007 Alexei Mikhalchik (he has no lawyer's status and was admitted by investigators to the trial as a public defender, – note of the "Caucasian Knot") acted as a witness at a search of the defendant's apartment.