Russian Prosecutor-General's Office asks to leave those blamed of Politkovskaya's murder behind bars

Today, the Moscow District Military Court has begun preliminary hearing of the case on journalist Anna Politkovskaya's murder. The General Prosecutor's Office asks to keep the persons accused of her murder in custody for other six months.

On October 16, the arrest term of four defendants expires.

"The Prosecutor's Office has petitioned to leave their freedom restriction measure unchanged," Anna Stavitskaya, advocate for Politkovskaya's family, told journalists today.

"The court has rejected our petition to postpone the hearing," said Ms Stavitskaya. Earlier, she Stavitskaya, representing interests of victims earlier had asked to postpone the preliminary hearing because the second victims' advocate - Karina Moskalenko - is absent.

Stavitskaya has also reported that "defendants had confirmed their wish to have the case considered by the military court with participation of a panel of jurymen." Besides, as she said, in the course of the session, advocate of one of the defendants moved a petition on inadmissibility of certain evidences.

The ITAR-TASS reports that today a petition of one of the defendants - Sergey Hadzhikurbanov - who asked to appoint Alexei Mikhalchik his social defender was rejected. Mr Mikhalchik has explained that he is a friend of Hadzhikurbanov's family and wanted to represent their interests as a social defender. However, the judge rejected the petition saying that the case files contain classified information.

Meanwhile, French policemen assert that the mercury detected in the car of Russian advocate Karina Moskalenko does not present any danger to human life and health.

The examination has confirmed that the substance found in Moskalenko's car was mercury. "However, the detected amount is not enough for causing any serious problems with one's health," said Claude Palpaquet, assistant of the public prosecutor of the city of Strasbourg as quoted by the French Le Figaro.

"The mercury could get there occasionally, since Karina Moskalenko bought this second-hand car this August," the policeman remarked.

According to Ms Stavitskaya, Karina Moskalenko was sent to examination as she and members of her family had symptoms of poisoning - "dizziness, nausea and headache."