Row 'exposes Politkovskaya trial as a sham'

Published on Thursday 20 November 2008 20:05

COLLEAGUES of the murdered Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya said yesterday that the trial of three alleged accomplices to the killing had been exposed as a sham, amid a dispute over a decision to hold it behind closed doors.

Lawyers for Ms Politkovskaya's family, who were in the courtroom, had told reporters that the judge, Yevgeny Zubov, had said he was barring the media because the jury had refused to enter the courtroom if journalists were present.

But a man who identified himself as one of the jurors gave a radio interview yesterday challenging that. "All that was untrue," Yevgeny Kolyesov said in an interview on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

"There was no decision (by the jurors] that the press should not be present."

A fierce critic of the Kremlin, Ms Politkovskaya was shot dead two years ago, causing a widespread outcry in the West and raising questions about Russia's commitment to freedom of speech. Her trial is now under intense scrutiny.

Ms Politkovskaya's supporters say the barring of the media is part of an attempt by the authorities to cover up their failure to investigate the killing properly.

Mr Kolyesov said 19 of the 20 jurors and reserve jurors subsequently signed a statement to the judge denying that they wanted all reporters out of the courtroom. "We are asking to remove only television cameras, but we do not object to text reporters taking part," he said.

Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper where Ms Politkovskaya worked, said Mr Kolyesov's remarks confirmed his own suspicions about the trial.