At Politkovskaya's murder process, defendants made last plea

Today, the Moscow Regional Military Court has completed debates of the parties on the murder case of Anna Politkovskaya, observer of "Novaya Gazeta". The defendants who made their last plea refused to admit their guilt.

"Today, the prosecution tried again to exert emotional pressure on the jurymen, emphasizing general points and secondary evidences of the indictment," said Murad Musaev, advocate of one of Makhmudov brothers. "However, it failed to answer direct questions asked by defence yesterday."

All the defendants made their last plea at the session. "The sitting was emotionally heavy," Mr Musaev has stated. "In particular, I think, nobody could stay indifferent after the speech of Dzhabrail Makhmudov. I saw tears in the eyes of jurymen and victims' representatives; even I listened to his words with a lump in my throat. He said that 'mother' is a sacred word, and he hoped that Politkovskaya's children would reveal the truth, and real culprits would be punished. Dzhabrail has stated that he would have never in life been addressed with a murder request, moreover, to kill a woman. And if he had ever received this sort of request, he would have never agreed to commit the crime."

Ibragim Makhmudov just said in his last plea that during the whole of investigation and litigation, he was told about his telephone conversations with his brother; the accusation was built on decoding of these talks. "But you just show me the place, where the crime was accomplished!" Murad Musaev has quoted him saying.

"Pavel Ryaguzov spoke long and emotionally, recollecting the operations on freeing hostages, in which he took part, and about his successful struggle against criminality," Mr. Musaev continued, "while Sergey Hadzhikurbanov was laconic, having reiterated only that he would not plead guilty."

It is expected that the verdict on Anna Politkovskaya's murder case will be announced by the Moscow Regional Military Court tomorrow, on February 19.