Trial on Politkovskaya's murder to start in September

Sergey Sokolov, deputy editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta", has reported that the case on the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the paper, may be transferred to the court in the first decade of September.

According to Mr Sokolov, currently the parties are finishing their acquaintance with the materials of case, the "Interfax" reports.

Sergey Sokolov has emphasized that the newspaper "will insist that the trial should be open." Under his information, four persons will be on the dock. "They are two Makhmudov brothers, former RUBOP (Russian Administration for Fighting Organized Crime) officer Sergey Hadjikurbanov and Lieutenant Colonel Paul Ryaguzov," said Sokolov.

The journalist has emphasized that Ryaguzov's guilt "was not proved", and "he will be trialled under some other article." At the same time, Sokolov does not exclude that the court "may return to Mr Ryaguzov's role in Politkovskaya's murder," the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports.

"I'd like to note that the fragment now sent to the court doesn't mean at all that the murder is opened. It is one third of the whole massif, and as to the killer, customer and other figurants, the investigation thereon was isolated into separate proceedings," said Sokolov and added that "the investigation goes on, and we hope it'll go on efficiently."