Word: retrials
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...were relieved. It meant the investigation into the crusading journalist's shooting would continue and, they hoped, would finally catch the real culprits: the person who ordered the assassination and the person who pulled the trigger. But on Thursday, Russia's Supreme Court overturned the acquittal and ordered a retrial, sparking fears that a guilty verdict the second time around will end the search for Politkovskaya's killers...
...ruling, the Supreme Court said there were numerous procedural violations in the previous trial, and an improper bias against the defendants, which necessitated a retrial on the same charges in the same court. (By citing procedural violations, the Supreme Court renders the first verdict void, and so sidesteps the issue of double jeopardy which states a person can't be tried for the same crime twice.) Politkovskaya's family and lawyers oppose a retrial, saying a guilty verdict for the alleged accomplices could end the investigation and allow those directly responsible for the murder to remain free. Meanwhile, journalists...
...Many observers see an ulterior motive behind the Supreme Court's call for a retrial, which may start in the fall. "This decision sounds okay - as though the 'good' Supreme Court has corrected problems and justice has triumphed," said Yulia Latynina, an investigative journalist, during the political talk show she hosts on Ekho Moskvy. "In Russia, everything is rigged: the police, the prosecution and the courts. This is just P.R. to create the impression that there is a legal process taking place...
...with a summit between Obama and Russian President Dimitri Medvedev scheduled for July 6-8, others posit that perhaps the retrial is a real quest for justice, however misguided. "There may be recognition in the government that the failure to hold someone to account for the murder of Politkovskaya is a glaring omission - and there should be accountability for such crimes, but within the bounds of fair trial protections," Allison Gill, director of Human Rights Watch in Russia, tells TIME. "It might be that the Kremlin wants to show that they want to get the job done." (See pictures...
...anyone would be successfully prosecuted for the Omagh bombing. Prior to that, Colm Murphy - one of the five accused in the families' civil case - was sentenced to 14 years in jail in the Republic of Ireland in 2002 for conspiracy to cause the bombing. Murphy is currently awaiting a retrial after that conviction was overturned. (See pictures of the British army leaving Northern Ireland...