A Moscow jury has acquitted three men charged in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya.
The not guilty verdicts were an embarrassing defeat for prosecutors in a trial compromised from the start by the absence of the suspected gunman and any alleged mastermind.
Defendants Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov and a former police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, were accused of helping organise and arrange Politkovskaya's contract-style killing in 2006.
They were charged with murder and could have been imprisoned for life if convicted.
Politkovskaya's probes into atrocities in Chechnya and abuses by Russian authorities angered the Kremlin.
Her killing underscored the risks run by journalists and other critics of the government in Russia.
The investigation into the murder of human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya must continue with renewed vigor, Amnesty International said today, on February, 19 as a jury in a Moscow military district court acquitted all those charged with involvement in the murder.
“We urge the relevant Russian authorities not to stop here but to continue the investigation into the murder and to bring to justice all those involved, including the gunman and those who ordered the killing,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International. “The end of the trial does not lift the onus from the authority to find the murderer and his sponsors,” Nicola Duckworth said.
It is worth mentioning journalist and human rights defender Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on 7 October 2006 in Moscow.
Reports on Kvira, a radio programme jointly created by IWPR and the broadcaster Trialeti, have prompted the Georgian authorities to improve housing for refugees displaced by the Russia-Georgia war, and to consider giving financial help to students whose families lost their livelihoods.
People left homeless by the war in August complained about conditions in houses built for them a month ago on the outskirts of the town of Gori.
“[These cottages] were clapped together in just one month’s time,” said Maia Abashidze, a refugee from the village of Tkviavi.
“The walls had no time to dry off, and the floor has buckled in some places. It’s so damp in here. Our clothes, blankets, walls, everything is so damp we can ...
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 From: Al Evans <evansalca@comcast.net> Subject: comment on civil society
I enjoyed reading the piece by Debra Javeline and Sarah Lindemann-Komarova (PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 34) in Johnson’s Russia List on February 2. I agree with many of the points that they made. It is true that in the West much of the coverage of civil society in Russia has been very one-sided during recent years, and I would add that there has been a political motivation for such coverage. It is also true that many Western sources have equated civil society in Russia with human rights organizations, neglecting to mention the activity of many other types of organizations that have a broader base of support. I also agree with the observation that much of the Western coverage of recent legislation on NGOs in Russia has been one-sided and has not considered the experience ...
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