Judge in Politkovskaya's murder case can be brought to disciplinary responsibility

Judge Evgeniy Zubov can be brought to disciplinary responsibility, if it is proved that his decision to make the trial of Anna Politkovskaya's murder case closed was illegal.

Today, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has demanded to reopen Politkovskaya's trial. The CPJ has disseminated this statement in response to media messages that Evgeniy Kolesov, one of the jurymen in Anna Politkovskaya's case, has refuted the assertion of the judge of the Moscow Regional Military Court that the trial was closed for the press on the request of the jurymen.

Pavel Odintsov, press secretary of the Supreme Court, has reported that the publications in federal mass media, containing information about the violations in the course of the proceedings, were transferred today to the Chairman of the Supreme Court (SC). The "Gazeta.Ru" writes that the decision on whether Judge Evgeniy Zubov had made violations and on the measures to be taken will be passed on Monday, November 24.

The Judge can be brought to disciplinary responsibility should it be proved that he had switched the trial into the closed regime illegally. The "Interfax" quotes Henry Reznik, President of the Moscow Bar: "It is necessary to get into the situation. If the jurymen had indeed declared that they didn't want an open trial, this demand is illegal, and the judge should have been obliged to dismiss the jury and select a new one."

Mr Reznik has emphasized: "If the judge had deliberately perverted the jurymen's statement, he has put his impartiality under question. This should entail disciplinary responsibility."